


Stumbling Home

by bewaretheboojum



Category: Batman (Comics), Red Robin (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Arson, Fluff, Future Fic, Kon is a fireman!, M/M, Tim has a cat, casefic, descriptions of large fires, meta-human
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2020-10-12 14:55:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 50,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20566223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bewaretheboojum/pseuds/bewaretheboojum
Summary: In his mid-twenties, Tim moves back to Gotham City after several years living abroad. He's feeling adrift, unfocused and a little off balance as he tries to re-establish a life in his home town.Kon is a fireman by day and superhero by night. When mysterious fires start cropping up in Metropolis, all signs point to arson. Who better to help him get to the bottom of this arson case than Tim? And really, it seems like Tim could use the distraction...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Many millions of thanks to Silver_Snow_77 for the beta-work, talking me through the edits and generally being rad.

Large pillars of flames shot up high into the Metropolis night, eating at the crushed shell of the dingy warehouse with a roaring intensity. The fire burnt brilliantly, orange, red, and white as the oxygen from the breezy summer night fed it and kicked it up hotter and higher. 

The heat of the blaze was oppressive, even to Kon. He could feel the intensity of the flames even through his fireman’s bunker gear and the protective force of his TTK. The sheer power of the inferno made Kon’s skin flush and prick with sweat. 

The fire in the abandoned warehouse had been raging for what was probably nearly thirty minutes before Kon and the rest of his fire fighting unit even arrived. The building was isolated enough that no one had noticed the smoke billowing out of the broken windows until the fire had been well established inside. The fire wasn’t called in until the smoke was billowing high enough to be noticed in a neighborhood four blocks over.

By now, the smoke was so thick and heavy in the air that it was getting hard to see. Trying to make out whether his team’s efforts were even being effective, Kon had to use his X-ray vision to catch glimpses of what was going on inside the burning building. He was grateful for the compressed air in his helmet that helped him breathe clearly despite the smoke billowing up all around him. 

By the time Kon’s battalion had arrived, half of the building had been already consumed and their main focus was containing the blaze. Kon’s team had been working to control the fire for nearly four hours and while things were more under control than they had been, there was still a lot of work that needed to be done to put the fire out entirely.

Firehose on full blast, Kon worked along with the rest of his battalion to try and suppress the flames as best they could. The fire was burning so hot that most of the water was vaporizing on contact with the flames, making the air feel even thicker and heavy all around them. 

Kon had fought fires this bad in the past, but not many and not recently.

Cutting his eyes to the other members of his company that were working the hose line, he saw slumped shoulders and tight faces. Two other firefighters in his company were huddled around the truck, gulping water and rubbing at their tired, bloodshot eyes. Kon could hear sirens in the distance as a firetruck from another nearby company rushed towards the location of the blaze.

Someone had called in backup.  
Thank Rao.

Kon was happy to hear the help on the way. If he was flagging, even with his super strength, he couldn’t imagine how tired the rest of his crew was right now. He could hear their labored breathing and the pop of their tired joints as they worked. None of the members of Kon’s battalion could hide the exhausted slump of their shoulders or the tension around their smoke reddened eyes. 

The backup truck arrived just moments later, the fresh faced firefighters rushed out to relieve them all. Handing his hose off with a grateful nod, Kon trudged over to the sidelines with the rest of his battalion. Everyone was slouched on the bumper of their truck, heads hung low and faces filthy with soot everywhere that wasn’t covered by their oxygen masks.

“This one… is rough…” an older member of their company named Peterson gasped, reaching for a cooler of ice and bottles of water stashed in the back of the truck.

Kon couldn’t help but agree.

While he hadn’t been doing this quite as long as Peteson, Kon had fought his fair share of fires both in his fireman’s bunker gear and in a cape and tights. 

Kon had become a firefighter during college. He had been feeling lonely and displaced as he, Tim and Bart grew up and grew apart when they went off to college and started jobs. Kon had been looking for a way to connect with the community around him that didn’t involve superheroing, hoping to make some civilian friends and set down some roots in his community that didn’t involve Clark, Lois and Jon. 

His local fire company had been looking for volunteers and Kon offered to help out figuring that, at the very least, saving people was something he knew how to do. He had worked as a volunteer for a few years during college and then a few more after as he hopped from low paying job to low paying job waiting tables and bouncing at bars. He was offered a full-time, paid position with the Metro 17 fire battalion in the Southside of Metropolis. That had been almost three years ago.

Even with years of firefighting and superheroing experience under his belt, Kon had rarely seen a blaze as bad as this one. At least not a fire that hadn’t been caused by bombs, missiles or magic. The temptation to abandon his hose and try to sneak in some superheroics was strong. He was starting to get worried that they wouldn’t be able to put out the flames with their normal methods.

“Yeah,” Kon agreed with a cough, gratefully accepting water from Peterson. “This is going to take another few hours to put out, at least.”

“I’m just gonna say what we’re all thinking,” Andy said with a wave of her hand. “Something this intense didn’t start without some help. There has to be some accelerant somewhere.” 

Andy had started at Metro 17 around the same time as Kon, but had experience as a volunteer firefighter in Star City for a lot of years before getting a paid gig with Kon’s battalion. She had some experience with arson and fire setting. Star City seemed like an exciting place, from everything Andy said.

“I thought most arson was for insurance money?” Kon mused, taking a sip of water. “That place doesn’t look like it would be insured for much of anything, if it’s insured at all.”

Andy shrugged and shook her head. They all turned back to look at the abandoned building thoughtfully.

“Who the fuck knows,” she coughed. “Maybe it’s a firebug. You know, someone just doing it for kicks. The asshole’s probably watching us and laughing his ass off right now.”

Kon hadn’t considered that. While the rest of the company downed their water and talked, Kon scoped out the area. Using his X-ray vision and his keen sense of observation, Kon looked around for suspicious activity near the burn site. Aside from a couple of folks from the Channel 8 news who were keeping their distance, a few stray dogs and a seriously alarming number of rats, there were no other living beings in the area that were not currently garbed in bunker gear.

Kon was just starting to consider smelling around to see if any of the other firefighters reeked of accelerant when someone called them all back to the hose lines. It took Kon’s battalion another six hours, even with the backup, to put out the fire.

The arson investigators got to the site just as Kon’s battalion was packing up to leave. They trudged out of their vehicles, giving the burnt out warehouse some serious side eye as they prepared their equipment to start the review of the scene. The other fire company stayed behind to keep an eye out for hot spots and help the investigators while the Metro 17 crew headed back to their station.

After showering and changing back into their civilian clothes, a few of them left for home. Kon, Peterson and Andy waved goodbye to those members of the battalion who wanted to head back to their families. Then the three of them trudged tiredly to a bar down the block from the station. Various members of the Metro 17 frequented the bar enough that the bartenders recognized most of them and gave them all a discount on the days they were looking more tired than usual. Kon and his battalion members settled into their usual booth and ordered a pitcher of beer and some food.

“Loooooong fucking day,” Peterson said lifting his pint glass in a toast.

They all chorused “long fucking day” before tapping their glasses together and taking a long pull of their beers.

“Yeah, that absolutely sucked,” Andy said, reaching for a basket of pretzels and sticking a few in her mouth. “I would very much like to consume one thousand calories, take off my bra and go the fuck to sleep.”

“Agreed,” Kon said, grabbing a few pretzels of his own. “I mean, I won’t be doing the bra thing for obvious reasons but I will be removing my pants immediately after my apartment door shuts behind me. In solidarity with the bra removal of course.”

Andy tapped her glass to Kon’s and gave him a smile and a nod. 

“To solidarity,” she toasted.

“How long do you think it’ll take for the arson investigators to review the scene?” Peterson asked before putting a large number of cheese fries in his mouth and washing it down with another swallow of beer.

“Mmmm,” Andy hummed into her glass as she took another sip. “Probably a couple of hours. There should be an initial report by the time we get in tomorrow.”

“You still think it’s arson?” Kon asked Andy. 

After Andy had brought the idea up during their water break, Kon had been looking for signs of arson around the scene. He hadn’t seen any indication of another human being in the area around the fire and he hadn’t smelled any type of accelerant on anyone or anything near the blaze. 

Kon wondered idly about the different types of odorless accelerants. Despite being a firefighter, he didn’t actually know a lot about them.

“Let’s just say that I wouldn’t be surprised if the report came back and it was arson.” Andy said, grabbing a few more pretzels. “We’ll see what the investigators say, though. Frankly, I don’t want to think about someone setting another one of those.”

“Yeesh, yeah,” Peterson said. “Scary, scary thought.”

“What do you think they used to start it?” Kon asked.

Andy shrugged again. “Hard to say. Something nasty, though. It couldn’t have just be gasoline. There would have been signs if it was.”

Peterson clicked his tongue and Kon looked over to see the man eyeing his cell phone in annoyance.

“The wife is checking in. Be glad you are both single,” Peterson complained as he punched in a response to the text message.

“Oh nooooo,” Andy crooned. “You poor man. You have a loving wife at home who is concerned about your wellbeing. That must be awful.”

Kon joined in the light teasing as Peterson gave them all a wry smile.

“There’s such a thing as too much love,” Peterson said in a tone of voice he clearly hoped sounded wise. 

Over the course of the next hour or so they teased Peterson and finished their beers. By the time they paid their tab and headed out, it was close to ten pm. Kon had gotten to work that day at seven in the morning, he was beat.

The walk back to his apartment was a blur of exhaustion for Kon. The late spring night was warm with a cool breeze lending a slight chill to the air. The light wind ruffled the petals of the tulips and daffodils in the planters that lined the street leading down to Kon’s apartment building. Unfortunately, Kon’s nose was still so overexposed to smoke and grit that he could barely make out the scent of spring flowers.

Krypto met Kon at the door with a low woof and Kon gave him a soft pat on the side in greeting. After he took Krypto out for a short walk around his apartment complex and spoiled him with several treats, Kon headed back inside, thinking longingly of his soft bed. 

True to his word, Kon pulled off his pants, in solidarity to Andy, as soon as he could. He tossed them into a laundry basket and made his way to the chest of drawers in his bedroom to pull out some sleep clothes.

Kon had just changed into his pajamas when his cell phone rang. 

“‘Lo?” he answered, barely looking at the readout before bringing the phone to his ear.

“Heeeeeey, what’s up?”

It was Bart. Unlike Kon, he sounded wide awake and happy to hear Kon’s voice.

“Long day,” Kon sighed letting out a breath of air as he rubbed at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “How are you, buddy?”

Bart went into a detailed explanation of his day while Kon collapsed onto his bed, not even bothering to fully pull his sleep shirt all the way down over his stomach. 

A couple of years back, Bart had become a courier with a bunch of different delivery services in Central City. He usually made money hand-over-fist since he could take so many gigs at once. Bart usually had some pretty entertaining stories about the weird things he was asked to deliver. 

Kon half listened to Bart’s chatter, as Krypto climbed on the bed next to him and rested his head on Kon’s chest. Absently petting Krypto’s ears, Kon heard about Bart’s breakfast disaster (he only had five bagels left for breakfast), his day at work (a client for a big courier job stiffed him on a tip after he delivered three dozen live snakes), and his not-so-satisfying dinner (15 tacos but they didn’t have enough filling). 

“So what about you?” Bart asked, “How was your day?”

“It was rough,” Kon answered tiredly. “Big fire near the warehouse district. The building went up like a matchstick. It was crazy. Especially because the damn building was constructed mostly of metal and cement.”

“Wow. What caused it?”

“We think maybe it could have been a case of arson, but no one knows for sure,” Kon said, not feeling like he had the energy to give Bart the whole story behind his day. “The fire was brutal. Too brutal to not have had someone helping it along.”

“Yikes. That’s scary. Was everyone ok?”

“The building had been vacant for a while, so no one was inside when it went up, as far as we could tell. I’m not sure we would have been able to get anyone out in time to save them if they had been inside, honestly. The fire was too hot and too big. Everyone who fought the fire is fine, fortunately. We needed to call in a whole other company to help us put it out, though.”

“Wow, that’s crazy.”

“Yeah, we’re all just hoping we’re wrong about the arson. It would be nice if this was just some sort of accident somehow. We won’t know until the investigators are done checking out the scene. Maybe the owner of the building just left a bunch of combustible chemicals behind when they cleared out instead of paying to properly dispose of them. I’ve seen it happen before.”

“Did you see any specific signs that pointed to arson?” Bart asked curiously.

Kon took a few minutes and briefly explained to Bart what happened that afternoon and Andy’s suspicions. 

“The only weird thing is that I didn’t smell any accelerant or unusual chemicals. Or spot an obvious area where the fire started. It was weird.”

“Hmmmmm, maybe you could ask Tim about it,” Bart suggested. “He probably knows a lot about stuff like that. He always knows weird things. Remember that one time he knew what chemicals were in all the sodas at the Taco Hut?”

Kon snorted, which startled Krypto. Feeling guilty for waking him, Kon had to pet Krypto soothingly to calm him back down. Krypto let out a happy little snuffle and settled his head back down on Kon’s chest.

“Tim’s not exactly the easiest guy to get a hold of these days. Aside from a few stray texts, I don’t think I’ve even spoken to him in months. Besides, what time is it in China right now anyway? Four in the morning?”

Tim had moved to China about five years ago, during his last semester of college. At the time, Tim said something about wanting to spread his wings a little, see the world. But Kon suspected that wasn’t the whole story.

When Tim had left, he seemed… thinner somehow. Not just physically, but emotionally too. Like if someone asked him for one more favor, one more data point, one more recon mission, he might break apart. It had worried Kon at the time, so when he left, Kon had been in full support of the decision.

Kon hadn’t really asked questions about why Tim left or when he planned to come home. Kon just sat back and waited for Tim to let him know when he was ready to talk or hang or superhero together. It happened every so often but...

Tim ended up finishing his degree in China. While he was living there, Tim built up a business specializing in customized corporate security systems. Tim being Tim, he threw himself into his work and crime fighting, Tim spent less and less time staying in touch with his friends and family in the US and more and more time doing… 

Well, Kon didn’t actually know what Tim was up to these days. The guy didn’t exactly make it easy to keep tabs on him. Aside from a few Instagram posts and a couple of brief text messages, Kon hadn’t had a life update from Tim in ages.

“He’s not in China,” Bart cut in. “He’s in Gotham. He flew in last night. That’s actually what I called about.”

“What do you mean he’s in Gotham?” Kon asked, sitting up in bed. Krypto whined as his head slipped off of Kon’s chest and back onto the bed.

“Yeah, I just heard today. So, you didn’t know he was moving home, either?” Bart said. “I figured you didn’t since you hadn’t mentioned it to me or Cassie.”

Kon shook his head mutely for a few long minutes, feeling much more awake now than he had been just seconds before.

“Wait, what? No, I didn’t know. When is he moving back? Did you hear?”

“He’s in the process right now, apparently. Wally heard from Dick about it this morning.”

“Wow, that seems fast.”

“Maybe not, did he say anything to you about wanting to move home?” 

“No, but I don’t know that he would have...”

“Yeah, same here. Like you said, he’s been a little hard to reach... Hopefully not that he’s on the same hemisphere as us, he’ll answer his phone more often.”

“Maybe,” Kon mused. “I wonder why he decided to come back.”

“Maybe he got bored,” Bart speculated. “Like, maybe he solved all the crimes in China. How many crimes do you think they have in China?”

“Or maybe he got lonely,” Kon said thoughtfully. “Like, I know he grew up without his parents around a lot… But, say what you will about his siblings, I think part of him got used to not being alone all the time. 

Bart was quiet for a long minute then let out a low hum.

“Could be that too,” Bart agreed eventually.

They both got quiet then.

“What do you think we should do?” Bart asked. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean, if he did come home because he’s lonely. It’s not like he would come right out and say it to us. He’s never been… open in that way… I feel like I have better luck at skeeball than I do at guessing what Tim’s thinking.”

“I think,” Kon said, taking a deep breath, “I think we don’t wait for him to come talk to us this time. I think this time, we talk to him.”

“You don’t think he’ll get pissed at us for being annoying or pushy?”

“Oh, he’ll for sure get pissed.”

“Great, that sounds promising,” Bart said grimly.

“Yup. Gotta love it when a Bat gets pissed at you. Still, it’s Tim. He never stays mad long. Anyway, I’ll call him tomorrow,” Kon said, already wondering how Tim would react to the call. “Maybe see if he wants to grab a beer and talk arson. Wanna come?”

“Mmmm,” Bart hummed thoughtfully, “I’ve got a lot of work this week. You’re going to have to get him to talk about his feelings all on your own.”

“Oh yeah, that’s exactly how I’m going to approach it. I’m going to say something like, ‘Now Tim, it’s time we talked about your feelings…” Kon started in before Bart cut him off again.

“Just find out what his plans are and why he left China. I want the hot gossip. Cassie will too!”

“We’re not going to gossip with--” Kon started but Bart cut him off.

“So, you’ll call him?” Bart asked with a firmness in his voice Kon wasn’t used to hearing from him. 

Kon snorted again.

“Yeah, I’ll call him tomorrow morning. See what he has to say. Then there’s the classic ploy of using arson as an excuse to meet up,” he said, letting Krypto lick one of his hands. “Tim never could say no to a new crime to solve.”

“And, realistically,” Bart added, “He probably already needs a break from the Bats. It’s not good for him to spend too much time with them. He gets all dark and loomy…” 

“Loomy?” Kon laughed. “He’s way too short to actually loom, Bart.”

“And yet,” Bart said with a firm finality in his tone of voice, “he somehow manages.”

^*^*^*^*^

The house was actually perfect. 

Tim was relieved when he finally got to see it in person. He had seen pictures online, talked the realtor and even sent Harper and Steph in to check it out before he bought it, but he was still a little worried about what it would look like when he finally saw the structure with his own two eyes.

It wasn’t that Tim didn’t trust Harper’s or Steph’s opinion and instincts, it was just that he was feeling pretty unsure about the move back to Gotham as a whole and he was sort of sublimating that through worry over the house. It was nice to get a little positive reassurance. 

The house Tim bought was a detached brownstone just far enough into the residential district on the West side of Gotham that it was quiet and just close enough to downtown that Tim could still walk to the bars and coffee shops if he wanted. The location was perfect, there was room to grow in the basement area and it was far enough from the Manor that Bruce wouldn’t stop in unannounced. 

Hopefully, anyway.

The inside of the brownstone was full of white walls, high ceilings, hardwood floors and new appliances. 

It had a lot of potential.

Or it would have a lot of potential if he could keep his siblings from totally destroying the place. Which was not a sure thing.

“Jason, could you maybe not throw that?” Tim asked tiredly, as he watched Jason toss a garment bag full of Tim’s best suits onto the floor. He didn’t even have the energy to wince.

“Hey, I’m doing you a favor, Timmers. Here I am generously helping you move and you just complain,” Jason said, giving Tim a mock glare before pointly kicking another box with the word ‘delicate’ scrawled across the side in sharpie. Tim hoped, briefly, it didn’t contain either explosives or his favorite coffee pot.

“I never asked for your help,” Tim pointed out. “You just showed up. Probably because you’re nosy and not because you actually want to help...” 

Jason cut him off with a wave of his hand.

“One: I’m not nosy, I’m a trained detective, remember? Two: We’re brothers. I’m legally obligated to help you move,” Jason said with a confidence born of what Tim could only assume was certifiable madness. “It’s in the adoption paperwork and everything.”

“What’s his excuse then?” Tim asked, pointing a thumb over to Damian who was just coming down the stairs after spending the last thirty minutes inspecting the second floor. “He’s never been even remotely interested in obligations, legal or otherwise. In fact, he’s been less interested in legal obligations than any other type of obligations...”

“This will do,” Damian said, sounding pleased with himself as he pointedly ignored what Jason and Tim had been saying. Damian nodded to Tim as he came down the stairs and gave the sort of half smile that made Tim deeply anxious.

“Yeah,” Tim said pointedly. “I think it will work well for one lonely bachelor.”

Tim was suddenly very concerned that Damian was planning on moving in. Tim already assumed Jason was planning on crashing on his couch as often as he wanted, he was just biding his time until Tim actually got a couch. He also suspected that Cass was already sleeping in the building somehow… He wasn’t sure how, since Tim just got the keys to the place this morning, but it was Cass, afterall. 

“You won’t be lonely,” Damian said firmly. “Auguste will be living here with you. I’ll bring him over tomorrow.”

“Auguste?” Tim asked, following Damian as he made his way to Tim’s front door. “Who is Auguste?”

“He’s a large marmalade cat,” Damian explained, pulling on and lacing up his shoes. “I found him yesterday while on patrol. He and Pennyworth do not get on as they are both male cats. He’ll like it here. There are many windows.”

“Wait, but—“ Tim started but Damian ignored him as he walked out the front door of Tim’s new house, got into his car and motored away.

“What the fuck?” Tim whispered as he stood in front of the large bay windows in his living room and watched Damian drive off.

“He tried to give me a raccoon last week,” Jason said conversationally as he came up to stand beside Tim in the doorway. “He said it just needed a home until it recovered from a coyote attack.”

“What did you do?” Tim asked, interested despite himself.

Jason shrugged and tilted his head to one side. 

“Alfred gave me the number for an animal refuge a few years back. I just dropped the guy off there. They take good care of them. Heal ‘em up and set ‘em lose again. You gonna keep Auguste?”

“That… remains to be seen,” Tim said slowly. 

“That is, shockingly, not a no, bud,” Jason drawled, giving Tim a sideways look.

“No, it’s not,” Tim conceded but he was unwilling to elaborate for Jason. “What are the chances Auguste is riddled with coyote bites, do you think?”

“I’d say fifty-fifty,” Jason mused, before stepping back away from the windows and moving around to inspect the living room closely. 

If Tim was being honest with himself, he wouldn’t mind the company. He had been feeling a little off, lately. 

China had been…

Tim was finally starting to come to terms with the idea that China had been a mistake. One big, years long mistake.

During his last year of college, Tim had decided to finish his degree at Ivy’s China campus. He had been feeling restless and a little stifled by school and Gotham and Batman. He was mad at Bruce, he was mad at Gotham and annoyed with his siblings. School wasn’t challenging, and his nocturnal activities had been feeling more repetitive and less impactful.

Between school and crime fighting and Bruce and his siblings and the Titans… Tim had been feeling tired. The bone deep kind of tired that extra sleep couldn’t fix. The kind of tired that made Tim feel like he had to push through the day, every day. Tim had felt like he just needed to get away. He needed some time to… decompress. Spend some time on his own.

Jason eyed some built in shelving along one wall of Tim’s living room, he grabbed one of the shelves and started to try and wobble it, Tim rushed over and shooed Jason away.

“Please don’t break my house before I’ve even properly moved in,” Tim said.

“I’m just checking that they didn’t give you crappy shelves! I’ve had a couple of places where the shelves broke really easily.”

“They didn’t break easily, you just had them past capacity. You’re only supposed to have one row of books per shelf. You don’t stack more books on top of the other rows of books!”

“Maybe you don’t,” Jason said and headed to Tim’s kitchen.

Tim was starting to remember why he had wanted so much alone time back then.

Tim had found himself fixating on the time he had spent in China when he was a teenager, back when he was just starting out as Robin. He couldn’t stop thinking about Connor Hawke and the Ashram where Connor still worked and lived. Tim thought all the time about potentially joining Connor and the Ashram, meditating in the warm summer heat out in nature, far away from the pressure and the crowds of the city... 

Tim ended up taking a page out of his parents’ book and he left. He went halfway across the world, hoping all his frustrations and exhaustion and negative feelings would melt away in that summer heat with Connor by his side and Gotham City half a world away.

And it worked for a while. 

Tim did meditate at the ashram. He did spend some time alone. He did get some extra sleep. He also spent some time with Connor. He started his own business, filed dozens of patents, graduated from school with honors, infiltrated the Triad, pissed off the League of Assassins and built for himself what he thought should be a home.

Except for how it didn’t really feel like one.

The perfectly furnished apartment in the best part of the city just felt empty after a while.

Tim watched idly as Jason opened and closed all of the cupboards in his kitchen, pawing through empty drawers and looking under the sink.

“Do you think you’re going to find hidden treasure or…”

“I’m just checking to make sure your big investment is up to snuff,” Jason said casually.

“Are you sure you’re not just checking for the best spots to put listening devices and cameras?”

“Absolutely not. On a totally unrelated note, in which room do you do most of your deepest darkest confessions? Please don’t say the bathroom.”

Tim tried very hard not to laugh at that joke. The last thing he needed was Jason thinking he was funny.

Though Tim would be the first to admit that he had missed his siblings while he was away.

The longer Tim had stayed in China the clearer it became that he was pretty isolated there. It became even more clear that what he wanted from Connor wasn’t what Connor wanted from him. When Tim’s subtle flirting was met with no corresponding response from Connor, Tim had felt… 

Rejected in a way that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Not since he realized his parents enjoyed traveling more than they enjoyed being with him. Not since Bruce told him he didn’t need a Robin. Not since Dick choose Damian over him. Not since Steph lied to him and went to Africa without a word…

And all of the sudden, Tim felt profoundly lonely in his home that didn’t feel like a home.

Everything in China seemed empty. It felt wrong in a way he couldn’t quite articulate. The friendships he found were a shallow simulacrum of his friendships back home. He missed his siblings, he missed his coffee shops, he missed his motorcycle, he missed his city. 

He even missed Bruce sometimes.

On a rare trip home, Harper had made a joke about him moving back to Gotham City. It was a joke that hadn’t felt much like a joke to Tim. 

After a movie night with Harper, Steph and Cass, a good old fashioned insult match with Damian, a night of rooftop tag with Jason and a family dinner with the whole crew, Tim thought that maybe moving back home might not be his worst idea. 

Tim had been running his company almost entirely independently, so he needed to work quickly to find someone to cover his clients in China. Tim made arrangements to hire a few contractors in China to help him oversee the work there he left behind. Hiro offered to help where he could, and Tim had been grateful for the offer. 

After talking with Harper and Steph he decided to buy a place in Gotham City. The two of them helped him find the place and met with the realtors for him. Tim arranged to buy the house and ship what little he had back to Gotham over the course of just a few weeks. 

Once Tim started moving forward with his plan to move home, he felt like he had to work as quickly as possible to finish the process so he could just be home again.

The preparations had gone by in a blur that hadn’t really provided Tim with the opportunity to think too hard about what he was doing. But now that he was here, settling in...

Tim's entire life had been in Gotham City, he had been born there, went to school there, survived the Quake, the Gang Wars, fought for his city, bled on the sidewalks. But Tim had grown discontent in Gotham. He was uncertain about his future and what he wanted to do. He truly believed that things in China would be better. He had moved to China with high hopes. He spent years there. He built a business, he built a life. Then he left it behind to go back to the city he left just a few years before for bigger and better things. 

What, exactly, did that say about his judgement?

What did it say about him as a person? 

Was this feeling, this uncertainty, what drove his parents to travel all of the time? What drove them to leave him behind, just like he left everyone else--

Tim decided not to think about it.

Bruce was clearly pleased at his decision to move back home, almost smug. Harper had been excited to help him pick a house, Steph had been excited to help him furnish it. They had spent weeks trading links of bedroom sets. Jason had been excited that he was back in time for baseball. Damian, it seemed, was indifferent provided Tim adopted this cat. 

Tim had texted Dick but he hadn’t heard back yet. Which was a whole other set of feelings Tim didn’t want to examine.

“You wanna grab some dinner?” Jason asked, tossing another box of Tim’s things to the side a little more roughly than Tim would have preferred.

“Nah, Kon’s swinging by in a little bit,” Tim said, trying not to wince as he eyed the boxes.

“Oh yeah?” Jason asked, sounding surprised. “How’s he been? I haven’t seen him since you fled the country.”

“I didn’t flee the country,” Tim said defensively.

“Listen, when it comes to this family, fleeing is the better part of valor, little brother. I do not blame you for skipping town for a few years. I assume it was to prevent either patricide, fratricide or both. Frankly, I’m more surprised you came back.”

“I missed going to Knights games,” Tim said lamely, desperate not to talk about all the things he was feeling. At least not right now.

Jason must have sensed what he was thinking, he looked up at Tim and smiled over at him with a lot more empathy in his expression than usual.

“I guess I can understand that,” Jason said in a quiet sort of voice. “I’d miss it too.”

Jason left then, but not before asking to borrow Tim’s bike and securing a promise from Tim that they’d go to the Knight’s next home game together. Tim agreed to let Jason borrow the bike, mostly because he figured Jason would take it whether he had Tim’s permission or not. He agreed to the game because he really did miss going to baseball games with Jason.

Kon knocked on Tim’s door about ten minutes after Jason left. He had Krypto, pizza and a six-pack of beer in tow. Kon whistled in appreciation when Tim invited him inside.

“This place is awesome, man,” Kon said. “I’m jealous. I’m in a one bedroom three story walk up with a kitchen the size of a small coat closet.”

“Yup, Harper helped me bully the realtors, but I really did get lucky,” Tim agreed, he bent to rub Krypto’s sides in greeting. Krypto made a happy sort of whimper and bumped his head against Tim’s hip.

Kon snorted and handed Tim the pizza box, pulling Krypto back as he tried to investigate the food situation.

“Nope bro, you got rich not lucky. How’s business, by the way?”

“Good in China. Here? That remains to be seen,” Tim said, leading Kon and Krypto to the kitchen with a wave. “I’m working on it. Or I will be when I’m sure all my utilities are working correctly.”

Tim and Kon both popped beers as Tim dug out some paper towels they could eat their pizza off of. Tim filled a bowl full of water for Krypto. The dog took a short drink before walking around in a few circles in the corner of Tim’s kitchen. He finally settled down on the floor, curled in a tight circle with the kind of happy, sleepy sigh that only a spoiled dog could produce. 

“I literally have no idea where my plates are,” Tim told Kon by way of apology. “The movers had things pretty well organized and then—“

“Then?” Kon asked.

Tim shrugged, “Then my siblings happened. I swear to god they’re like human tornados. All of them. I’m not sure why they felt the need to move things, but they certainly did.”

Kon smiled at him and lifted his beer can in a mock toast.

“To new beginnings,” Kon joked.

Tim smiled back at him wryly and tapped his can against Kon’s in a toast.

“Or some approximation thereof,” Tim put in sardonically and Kon laughed.

“So,” Kon said, reaching for a slice of pizza, “I gotta ask—“

“Yeah?”

“How does it feel to be home?”

“Well,” Tim said before taking a sip of beer. “I’ve already gotten into a fight with Bruce, Harper wants to paint all my rooms teal, Steph is insisting I get a white sofa because she has apparently forgotten how often she spills red wine on things, Jason ‘borrowed’ my motorcycle, Damian thinks I’m adopting a cat he just found, and I think Cass is already sleeping here which is weird because I didn’t get the keys for this place until this morning. So…”

Kon raised an eyebrow at him.

“It’s like I never left,” Tim finished with an expansive shrug and Kon laughed.

“You already got in a fight with Bruce? Over what, man?”

“Facial hair.”

“Ahhh, the stubble you’re sporting?” Kon asked, nodding to Tim’s chin. 

Tim rubbed a hand over the prickly hair on his jaw and shook his head.

“In a manner of speaking. Before I left China Bruce insisted I needed to come to the house for a family dinner the minute I got home. Well my flight was delayed and after spending thirty-six hours trying to get back to the US, I landed just in time to make it to B’s house for dinner. Not a minute more. So I showed up and he gave me crap for having a five o’clock shadow...”

Kon snorted a wry laugh and reached for his beer.

“Yeah, he asked why I didn’t shave. So I, as mature adults do, decided to never shave again. Hence the facial hair.”

“Makes perfect sense,” Kon said, grinning.

“Absolutely.”

“So, never shaving again?”

“Yeah, I’m guessing I’ll last another threeish hours before I give in and shave it off, but I feel like he can sense my rebellion from afar so I’m trying to last as long as I can…”

“Well, I like the beard. In the grand scheme of things, I think you’re already coming up ahead,” Kon said with a sly smile.

“How do you figure?”

“Granted, you have one less motorcycle than you expected but you have one more cat and one more beard and your walls aren’t teal, yet. So by my math, you’re ahead.”

“And my beer can is half full and I have yet to thank you for that,” Tim said, tipping his beer can in Kon’s direction.

“So what you’re saying is, this is the perfect chance to ask you for a favor.”

“Well, you brought pizza so I’m feeling magnanimous. So long as you don’t need a motorcycle, want me to shave or have a cat for me to adopt, I think we’re good.”

Kon laughed and Tim was surprised at how easy it was to slip back into casual, friendly conversation with Kon. He hadn’t actually spoken to Kon in months but right now it almost felt like they had never been apart.

Kon told Tim about the fire, as they drank their beer and finished off the pizza. He told Tim about how hard it had been to fight the blaze and put the damn thing out. He told Tim about his suspicions and the suspicions of the rest of his company about arson. He told Tim about how worried he was that there would be more fires like the one they had fought. He told Tim about how scared he was that the next one would maybe be in an occupied apartment building or an office high-rise somewhere. 

“The thing is,” Kon said, taking another bite of pizza, “my little section of Metropolis doesn’t see too much crime as a rule. Sure we have a few robberies, some domestic violence but never an arson. It feels… I don’t know…”

“Out of character for the neighborhood?” Tim finished Kon’s sentence for him, completely understanding what Kon meant. He had seen things like that before, in Gotham City. It never boded well. It usually meant there was some crazy new meta in town or someone poisoned the drinking water again.

“Yeah, almost like that,” Kon agreed with a wave. 

“Hmmmm, could be someone from out of town. Someone passing through or something?” Tim mused, his fingers playing at the label of his beer can. 

Kon shrugged.

“Maybe…”

“Have you gotten a report from the arson investigators?” Tim asked interestedly.

“Not much, just an initial report saying early findings are inconclusive. I can get the files over to you when they come through,” Kon offered. “It should only be another day or two before we have more back from them. These things can sometimes take time, but from what I saw there wasn’t much evidence to gather.”

“Yeah, if you could share their report when it comes in, that would be helpful. In the meantime, I'll do some digging around. I can see if there are reports of similar fires in the surrounding towns. Maybe expand the search to other states. If we can establish a pattern, it’ll help us understand what we’re dealing with a little bit better.”

“Thanks, Timbo. I really appreciate it. I was feeling a little out of my depth here. Alien invasions I’m good with, I’ve never really been much of a detective.”

“That’s why you keep me around,” Tim joked, reaching for another slice of pizza.

“Yeah, I’ll have to work on figuring out how to make you stay this time,” Kon teased, gently.

A sharp feeling of guilt washed over Tim, he tried to cover it up with a smile. He took a sip of his beer and said something to Kon he hoped was at least moderately amusing. The guilt stuck to his insides, though, as he thought about what Kon said.

Tim knew what it was like to be left behind. When he left for China he framed it for himself as taking control of his own life, putting what he needed first for once. He hadn’t realized how bad he would feel when he finally saw through that frame of logic. 

Tim hadn’t counted on how it would feel when he realized he’d drifted away from Kon and Bart. Or how it would feel to not be the first one Steph called after a bad date. Or the person Harper went to when she wanted to talk through a tricky problem. Or the guy whose sofa Cass always crashed on after a bad night. Or how much he missed grabbing a beer with Jason after a long, hot patrol in the summers… 

“Hey,” Kon said and Tim looked up at him. 

“Hm?” 

“Bad joke, maybe?” Kon asked, looking concerned. 

“Your jokes are always terrible,” Tim teased and smiled at Kon again in what he hoped was a more convincing way. From the look on Kon’s face, it really wasn’t.

Kon gave Tim a wry, half smile and clapped him on his shoulder. His hand felt big and warm even through the thin fabric of Tim’s t-shirt. The sensation was, at once, very familiar and deeply alien. 

After they finished the pizza and beer, Kon left and Tim was suddenly alone in his house for the first time. With Kon and Krypto, Jason and Damian, the place had felt too full, too small.

Now, without them, it felt big. 

Empty. 

Lonely.

Tim eyed the boxes stacked in his living room with something of a sinking feeling in his stomach. Unpacking suddenly felt like an insurmountable task.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim gets a cat, Kon gets nostalgic and the investigation begins!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many millions of thanks to Silver_Snow_77 for the beta-work, talking me through the edits and generally being rad.

Tim knew what he was doing was technically procrastinating. In his defense, it was productive procrastinating, but it was procrastinating nonetheless. 

He had dozens of boxes to unpack, utility companies to call, cleaning to do, office space to find, and the list went on. Stacks of still packed boxes loomed over him like towers of guilt. 

Instead of taking care of all that, Tim was digging around in EMS data for Metropolis County and its surrounding environs. 

Tim liked to think of himself as a person who was self-reflective and self-aware, but even he wasn’t sure if his slog through these data files was an effort to avoid actually taking the steps he needed to take to make this move permanent, or if he was just working to make it up to Kon for being a completely shitty friend for the past couple of years.

It was entirely possible it was a little of column A and a little of column B.

Probable, in fact.

While Tim hadn’t spent a ton of time on the research so far, it was enough that he had put off a few things that should have been done already. But it turned out that unincorporated municipal data files were not super easy for the natural language processing tools he had been developing over the past few years to parse due to their varying formats and key words. 

Someone needed to introduce the municipal government to the concept of data cohesion...

Tim had initially thought that all he would have to do was write and run a few algorithms through Metropolis’ database of emergency calls and police reports. Instead he had to recode and recompile several datasets, then expand his search to other EMS data. It had taken him several hours of work, but he was finally getting a decent output. 

Just as Tim was about to pick up his cell and give Kon a call, he heard his the locks on his front door turn open. Tim stood, walking over to the front door, wondering which of his siblings had been the first to clone a key to his new place.

It was Damian. 

Of course.

Damian was fumbling between the door knob, a large canvas bag and an animal carrier. Tim fought down the urge to groan.

Damian had been serious about the cat, apparently.

Tripping through Tim’s entryway, Damian handed him a rocking animal carrier before turning back to shut the door behind him. He kicked off his shoes in Tim’s entranceway and made his way into Tim’s living room. 

“He did not enjoy the ride in the car,” Damian announced, setting down the large canvas bag and beginning to unpack food dishes, a litter box, treats, food and toys for the cat.

“I can see that,” Tim replied, looking at the now growling cat carrier askance. 

“He will calm down soon,” Damian said, reassuringly. “He was quite happy at Father’s until he and Pennyworth began to disagree over food dishes. He and Titus even got along well. He is a good cat.”

Tim put the cat carrier down on the ground and reached out a tentative hand to open it. Damian reached out quickly to beat him to it.

“There’s no reason to be so cautious. He is very friendly,” Damian said, unzipping the bag and unclipping the clasps. Damian pulled the door to the carrier open expectantly and nothing happened.

Auguste remained stubbornly inside.

“TT,” Damian bit out. 

Tim had to agree with the sentiment. 

Damian began to try to reason with Auguste, while Tim watched, a little baffled.

“Come, come now, Auguste. You’ll like it here very much. Tim will take good care of you and I will come and visit very often.”

Very often?

Perfect.

Tim watched Damian talking uselessly for a while before going over to the supplies Damian had brought, palming a few cat treats. Then he placed one of them just outside of the carrier.

Damian glared at him, giving him a look that made it clear he was seriously re-considering gifting Tim with Auguste.

“You can’t just bribe him, he’s too smart for—“ Damian broke off mid-sentence as Auguste stopped growling, poked his head out of the carrier, nose raised as he sniffed for the treat. Stepping forward and out of the carrier, Auguste licked up a treat.

Auguste was a huge marmalade cat, as advertised. He was a little overweight with large green eyes and unusually long whiskers. It was clear at first glance that Auguste was not a young cat, the fur around his nose and eyes was starting to go white and he moved with careful slowness that spoke of aging joints. Tufts of hair tipped his ears and the corners of his chin.

Tim held out his hand, another treat between his fingers, trying to coax Auguste further out of the carrier and into the living room. Damian let out another “TT” as Tim coaxed Auguste further into the room. Tim gave him the last treats he had in his hand and then proceeded to scratch Auguste under the chin while the cat closed his eyes and purred, ignoring Damian entirely.

“I think he likes me,” Tim said, sitting on the floor next to Auguste and allowing the cat to climb into his lap with a contented chirup.

“He is just angry with me for making him leave,” Damian said, grumpily.

“Probably,” Tim with a shrug. “He’ll get over it.”

Damian let out a skeptical hum as he watched Tim and Auguste getting to know each other. He spent about thirty minutes explaining to Tim how to care for Auguste. Auguste was on a few supplements due to his age but was otherwise quite spry. 

Damian and Auguste helped Tim pick out a spot for Auguste’s cat bed and toys. 

“There. Now you won’t be coming back each night to an empty home,” Damian said, clearly pleased with himself as he took in the cat bed and feeder set up. 

“Was that your plan? To get me a roommate?”

“Mostly to get Auguste a new roommate,” Damian said with a shrug. “You were incidental.”

That sounded about right...

Tim and Damian watched as Auguste levered himself up into a jump. Landing on the wide windowsill where Tim had placed his cat bed, Auguste settled into a comfortable position in the sunshine and immediately started to doze.

Auguste, it turned out, snored rather loudly for a cat. 

Perfect.

Damian was repeating his very specific instructions in regards to the care and feeding of Auguste, when Tim’s cell phone rang.

“It’s Kon,” he explained to Damian, holding up his phone as evidence.

“Take it,” Damian said, gathering his things and giving the still sleeping Auguste a quick pat goodbye. “I need to get home anyway.”

Tim answered Kon’s call as he locked the door behind Damian. 

“Hey man, how’s your day been?” Kon asked when Tim said hello.

“I have a cat, now. So that’s a thing.”

“Oh yeah? How is he settling in?”

“He’s settling in ok, I think. I’m thinking this was either part of Damian’s master plan to get me to stay in one place for more than thirty seconds. Or he just needed to offload a cat pretty quick. I’m guessing it’s the latter.”

Kon laughed.

“If the cat is all it takes to keep you from moving all the damn time, I’m on board. What’s his name?”

“Auguste. He snores.”

Kon breathed out a laugh on the other side of the line.

“Yeah, so does Krypto. You think Auguste and Krypto will get along, or should I hold off on bringing him over again?”

“Damian said he liked Titus, so I say we give it a shot. He was pretty easy going after he calmed down from the car ride.”

“Good, Krypto liked visiting the other day,” Kon said and Tim felt something in his belly get warm with a rush of guilt and pleasure at that. 

Tim hurriedly changed the subject.

“How about you? How was your day? Put out any fires?”

“Not today. We did a presentation at an elementary school today. Turns out, kids these days are super into fire trucks. I’m ‘so cool’ I’ll have you know.”

“Ohhhh wow… how was that? I’m surprised they let you talk to those poor, impressionable youths.”

“Hey! I’m a reasonably successful adult who can refrain from swearing for thirty minute stretches of time. That’s not something most of my battalion can say. I am prime firefighter stock!” Kon protested with a laugh.

“I once watched you try to brush your teeth with Cassie’s mascara.”

“Yeah, but I was super hungover that morning.”

“My point…”

They both laughed at that, and reminisced about the party that had proceeded that particular incident. Tim was smiling widely by the time Kon pulled them back on topic.

“So did you manage to find any interesting info since we talked last?” he asked Tim.

“Yeah, so while there weren’t any signs of fires similar to the one you described in your territory, there were several in outlying areas. I’ve identified three other fires that seem similar to your description of the one you encountered: big, wild, no sign of accelerant and set in an abandoned building with no witnesses away from residential areas.”

“Three?” Kon asked, surprise clear in his voice.

“Yeah, three possibles. I’d need to visit the scenes with you to see if we could rule any connections in or out.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, one other thing that might be more ‘wow’, though. I also looked into several fires that met a few of the key criteria but not all. There was one other fire in particular that hit all the same criteria except for two things. The fire happened in a fast food joint not too far from the local community college. Several students at the community college, who were at the fast food place for a snack before their evening classes began, saw something usual.”

“A fire like that happened in an occupied building?” Kon asked, alarmed.

“Yes, but because it was seen right away, there was someone there to put it out before it got huge and out of control. All the others happened in deserted areas, allowing the fire to grow before anyone even noticed it had started.”

“Fair point,” Kon conceded.

“A typical fire in a fast food place would, I assumed, be most likely to start in the kitchen around the stove or the fryer. The fire in this case started in the dining area, at a table near the window and far away from the kitchen. Several of the teenage witnesses swore the table behind them just burst into flame while they were talking and eating.”

“What did the cops say?”

“The police report indicated that the cops who interviewed the kids thought one of the teens had started the fire and the others were covering for the arsonist. A quick review of the security tape didn’t help pinpoint a culprit. After the arson investigation, there were no signs of an accelerant. No one would explain how it happened so no charges were filed.”

“Hmmmmm,” Kon hummed thoughtfully into the phone. 

“Yeah, it was an interesting outlier. The fire in the fast food restaurant also took place several days before the other fires. It was also close enough to the other fire locations that it wouldn’t be hard to travel between the spots within an hour or two.”

“You’re thinking it’s all the same guy?”

“Yeah, I think maybe the fire at the fast food place was an accident, but all the others might be tests.”

Kon was thoughtfully quiet on the other end of the line.

“Testing what, though?” Kon asked, eventually. “There’s no sign of accelerant or how the thing was started.”

“I don’t think he’s testing tools. I think he’s testing himself.”

“Meaning…?”

“I’m wondering if his guy could be a baby-meta with some sort of combustion or fire related powers. It could explain the relative strength of the blaze and why we’re not finding the usual signs of foul play like a key point of origin for the fire or a clear type of accelerant.”

Kon let out a low whistle.

“There’s a thought.”

“Yeah, it might be worthwhile to give Peej a heads up at Starr Enterprises. It’s possible she might be able to help us identify and potentially neutralize the meta’s powers before they get too out of control.”

“Neutralize?” Kon asked, cautiously. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“I don’t mean kill him or take his powers for good. I mean figure out a way to repress them until he has enough control not to set a Crocky Burger table on fire because he’s anxious about debate practice.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Kon conceded. “But I do want to talk to Peej.”

“I can call Peej,” Tim offered. “I haven’t talked to her in a while. It’ll be good to catch up.”

“Ok, maybe we should call Maggie Sawyer too. Give her a heads up about a potential violent meta in her area.”

“Always better to know what to expect when it comes to Teenage Flame Monsters,” Tim joked. 

“He’s not a monster,” Kon protested. “He hasn’t hurt anyone—“

Tim cut him off.

“I know. I’m sorry. Bad joke... I’m as concerned about his safety and well-being as you are. I just mean that if Maggie knows what to expect from him in an encounter, she may react less drastically if they do meet. It’s for the safety of them both.”

Kon conceded the point and the two of them made plans to visit the sites of the fires that evening.

“Tell Auguste I said ‘hello,’” Kon said and as they made their goodbyes Tim promised he would as they disconnected. 

Tim walked back into his living, where Auguste was still napping in the sunlight. Walking up beside him, Tim ran a hand over the soft fur on Auguste’s belly. 

“Kon says ‘hi,’” Tim said to him. Auguste purred in response and licked Tim’s hand gently with a rough tongue.

“Thanks, roomie,” Tim said softly to Auguste before moving upstairs to unpack a few boxes. 

^*^*^*^*^*

Kon hadn’t seen Tim in uniform for almost a year and a half. It was clear that, at some point, Tim had upgraded.

Tim’s new uniform was very, very dark. It was all sharp points and shades of black, grey and burgundy. No bright red anymore, no yellow, and certainly no green. It made Tim look even more pale and thin than usual.

Kon watched Tim move as gracefully as the shadow of a cloud in the darkness. There were no bright colors, no gangly limbs, no stupid haircut or chunky gauntlets. Tim moved with a kind of careless agility that made Kon’s stomach knot and his face feel warm.

Tim picked his way through the wreckage of the site of the first fire they had identified as being potentially related to the blaze Kon had fought just a few days before. He moved fluidly over the charred skeleton of what had once been a fairly large warehouse. Kon could barely make out what the scattered remnants would have been before the fire devoured them. 

“You’re right,” Tim called over to Kon as he moved gingerly past a charred and twisted support beam. “I don’t see any one point where the fire could have been started…”

Hovering over the burnt out remains of the building, Kon glided over to Tim. He looked down at the areas Tim was examining with a careful eye, knowing full well that Tim was seeing dozens of things Kon wouldn’t have noticed in a million years.

“Was there a report from arson investigators?” Kon asked, eyeing the burnt out building.

“It doesn’t look like anyone thought to contact them. There had been a thunderstorm the night before and the team assumed it was related to some wires shorting out, but they couldn’t identify where it happened.”

“Gee, I wonder why,...”

“Unfortunately, with this site, some of the samples we collect could be deteriorated. The other sites should give us fresher evidence.”

Tim moved gracefully through the rubble, collecting samples and slipping them into small plastic bags. He tucked away the bags into his belt and returned his tweezers to the appropriate pocket. 

Tim looked up, then, scanning the nearby area. Looking out across the charred remains of the building the nearby side streets. He let out a low hum and put a finger to his domino. 

Kon glanced around as well, trying to see what Tim was looking for. He wondered if he should try to use his X-ray vision, but then, he didn’t know what he was looking for.

Tim had always worked in ways that were a little baffling to Kon. It wasn’t that Kon didn’t understand the basics of science and detective work. He knew most of what Tim did was asking questions and doing tests. He even followed the logic Tim laid out after he had solved the case. It was just how he knew what questions to ask, what tests to run, what to look for, and who to interrogate that Kon could never quite figure out. 

Tim’s mind worked in mysterious ways.

Pressing a few points on his forearm, a read out projected up from Tim’s glove. Tim worked on the read out for a few minutes, humming in satisfaction as he finished up. The projection slid back into the glove and Tim turned back to Kon.

Kon lifted an eyebrow in a question and Tim gave him a sharp smile. The smile was, in some ways, both very familiar and completely different. It had the same glimmer of clever pride that Kon remembered, but it was tighter, smaller, more contained that it had been before Tim had left for China.

Kon couldn’t help but miss his old smile.

Tim nodded up to the side of a nearby building and Kon scanned the area.

“Cameras,” Tim said. “A couple of them. I’ve gained access to the feeds and downloaded the videos from the past few weeks. Let’s hope the sites of the other fires have some sort of camera systems nearby as well and that our meta isn’t a very crime savvy guy.”

They followed essentially the same process for the two other sites. Kon flew them over, Tim collected samples and looked for cameras he could steal footage from. The site of the second fire had cameras as well, the third site had nothing but debris and the site of the final fire, the one in Kon’s territory, had a few cameras, but they were all blocks away. Tim gained access to all of the feeds they could find and downloaded the footage. 

When Tim had finished, they made their way back to Kon’s place.

The fire escape to Kon’s apartment was in the sheltered, short alley along the side of Kon’s building. The alley was too narrow for most cars and ended in a brick wall that made up the backside of a parking garage. No one ever went down the alley and it was the perfect spot to sneak back into Kon’s apartment. 

Grabbing Tim’s hand, Kon flew them quietly and swiftly up to the level of the fire escape that lead out to his bedroom window. Swiftly, Kon set them carefully down and opened the lock to his bedroom using his TTK.

“Neat trick” Tim said softly as they climbed inside. “Now I’m wondering how I’m going to modify the security systems for all of my clients to guard against that move. And also maybe the locks on my place so no one can break into my new house that way…”

Kon waved his hand airly as he answered.

“Who else do you know with tactile telekinesis? Besides, don’t you think that Auguste can protect his home territory?” 

“Auguste is ancient and sleeps deeper than Damian…” Tim pointed out.

Krypto came over to greet them as they slipped in through the window to Kon’s bedroom. Tim pulled off his domino, gloves, armored tunic and boots before tossing them on the small side table in Kon’s bedroom. 

Wearing only his leggings and a tank top, Tim followed Kon back out to the living room. Tim reached for the backpack he had brought along when he met Kon that morning. Pulling a laptop out of the pack, Tim set up on the narrow island in Kon’s small kitchen.

Legs dangling over one of the beat-up barstools that lined Kon’s island, Tim worked, focused and intent for over an hour. He scrolled through feeds and typed at his keyboard, as silent as if Kon wasn’t in the room. 

Kon kept himself busy giving Krypto treats and pouring them all some fresh water as Tim worked.

“And you’re doing… what now?” Kon asked Tim when he couldn’t really stand the silence any more. 

Kon leaned over Tim’s shoulder, peering at the screen Tim was working on. The window he focused on was a black background with white letters, numbers and symbols all over it. Kon knew it had to be some type of computer code, but he couldn’t parse enough of it to figure out what Tim was working on. 

“Mmmmm, I’m doing a couple of things,” Tim replied, still tapping at his keyboard. “First, I’m using an image capturing software to grab the faces of all the people who turn up on these tapes. Then I’m using those images and some facial recognition technology to check and see if a particular person or group of people has visited the sites of any of the fires more than once.”

“When he starts these fires, you think he scopes out a location by visiting it first?” Kon asked.

“I think he might,” Tim said interestedly. “I’d also be willing to bet he shows up after the fire to see how much damage he did.”

Kon let out a low whistle, nodding in understanding. He leaned in again trying futilely to understand something on the screens. Tim waved him back with an airy gesture.

“Next,” Tim continued, “I’m checking to see if any of the same faces have appeared around the locations of the other fires.”

“That makes sense,” Kon said. “But how do you know when they showed up at the site of the fire? They could have come the night before, camped out then went to Firetown.”

“We don’t know, so I’ll cast a wide net. I’m checking two weeks before and two weeks after the date of the fire at each location.”

“Smart.”

“The other thing I’m doing is using a profile to isolate people on the videos who we think are most likely to have started the fire.”

“Profile?”

“Yeah, I’m thinking the guy is young and male so that should help narrow down potential suspects.”

“You’ve got your hands pretty full, then, huh? Anything I can do to help?”

“Mmmmm, I don’t think so. Once I get this all set up, it’s going to take some time for the programs to run. Lots of data to parse.”

“So...” Kon drawled, “I’ll order dinner while you parse your data, then?”

“Good idea. I’m starving.”

After a brief debate that Kon’s heart wasn’t really in, they settled on Thai. 

Kon went out to pick up the food and Andy called just as he was getting back to the apartment, dinner in tow. He chatted with her about developments in the case while he dished the food into bowls and grabbed a few beers from the fridge. 

“The arson investigators are still running tests?” Kon asked, as he carried the bowls to the table. 

“Yeah, seems like it. We’ll get some more results back in a few days. Until then… we informed the police, just in case the guy turns into a serial fire starter. Now that all the hot spots at the site of the fire are out for sure, they’re going to start monitoring the area starting tomorrow, just in case the guy shows up again. Firebugs usually do. They like to see the amount of damage they’ve done after the fact.”

“Not a bad idea,” Kon agreed, though he was secretly grateful that the cops hadn’t been deployed earlier. He and Tim had enough trouble climbing around the sites of the fires without having to dodge cops while they did it. 

“Yeah, I hope the cops and the arson investigators get to the bottom of this quickly. As much as I love my job, it’s always better for the universe when we are all very, very bored.”

Kon laughed as he set the plates and beers out on the table. He put Krypto’s food bowl out as he said goodbye to Andy. Then he went to round up Tim and Krypto.

It took a few minutes to pry Tim away from his laptop, but Kon eventually managed to herd Tim and Krypto to their respective dinner dishes.

Tim sat down, popped his beer and looked expectantly at Kon. 

“You spoke with another member of your… team?”

“Battalion,” Kon corrected, digging into his food. “Yeah, she had an update from the arson investigators.”

Tim furrowed his brows as he picked up his chopsticks, tilting his head at Kon in inquiry.

“I didn’t see any update in the system,” Tim said.

“The update was that they didn’t know anything yet. Did you hack into their files?”

“Yeah, like ten minutes after you told me what had happened,” Tim said with a shrug.

Kon shook his head, laughing lightly. 

“Of course you did. So everything is all set up now?”

Tim nodded, his mouth was full and he took the time to chew and swallow before answering.

“Yeah. All set up. There are a few other things I’ll probably work on when I get home tonight, but otherwise, I’m done for now.”

Krypto, who had gobbled up all of his food, whined at Kon for more. Kon shook a playful finger at him and Tim reached over to rub Krypto’s side comfortingly. Krypto turned his attention to Tim, clearly thinking he may be a softer target for snacks than Kon. He rested his head on Tim’s thigh before he let out a sad huff of air.

“I’m on to you, pup,” Tim warned with a smile and rubbed at Krypto’s ears. “No extra treats from me.”

“He missed you,” Kon said to Tim, without thinking.

Tim looked at up Kon, setting down his chopsticks. His expression was suddenly a little guarded and unsure.

“I… I missed Krypto, too,” Tim said softly in a neutral tone of voice, breaking eye contact with Kon to look down at Krypto.

“That… that wasn’t an awkwardly veiled way to say I missed you,” Kon said, putting down his chopsticks and reaching hastily for his beer.

Tim looked up at him, an amused half smile playing at the corner of his mouth,

“No?”

“Nah, I did miss you, man. I don’t need to use the dog to say it.”

Tim looked away again and nodded. Kon could see him swallowing hard and he heard Tim’s heart rate spike.

“I missed you too, Kon. I just--”

“Needed some space to figure your shit out,” Kon broke in trying to give Tim the chance he needed to regain his calm. “Yeah, I get it. You’re talking to the guy who went a thousand years into the future to get a little space of his own, man.”

“I appreciate that, but I really should have… I should have been better. About staying in touch. With everyone.”

“That’s the thing, when you have the same assholes calling you all the time whining about their problems, it’s not actually getting ‘space.’ It’s just applied international problem solving.”

Tim laughed at that and Kon enjoyed watching Tim’s smile.

“Besides, if I needed you, really needed you, I knew where you were. And I knew that you’d drop anything to help if I asked you.”

Tim leaned back in his chair and looking out across Kon’s cramped kitchen.

“I would have…” Tim said, slowly and thoughtfully.

“I know. Because like forty-eight hours ago, I came to you needing help and you stopped unpacking your new house to do it.”

“In all fairness,” Tim said, smiling and picking up his chopsticks again, “I really didn’t feel like unpacking…”

“Aren’t you rich enough to hire people to do that for you, now?”

“Strangely, I’m still deeply uncomfortable with people I don’t know handling my underpants.”

“In your defense, you do have some unique pairs of undies,” Kon joked.

Tim smiled wryly in response.

“But seriously, how much of this is you actually needing help and how much is you trying to get my head out of my ass?”

“Hmmmmm,” Kon hummed as he thought for a long moment. “I’d say it’s fifty percent me needing help and fifty percent me just missing you and wanting an excuse to drink beer and eat take out with you.”

“That’s comforting,” Tim said, taking another bite of food.

“I’m guessing that everyone in your family is pointedly not asking what prompted the sudden move home,” Kon ventured, watching Tim’s reaction to the statement carefully.

“Ahhhh,” Tim hedged for a moment, looking uncomfortable again. “Your guess would be correct. They’ve mostly been interested in my vehicles, sofa related plans, and my relative suitableness for animal fostering…” 

“Is that because they know you well enough to know you don’t want to talk about it, or because they are deeply uncomfortable with the idea of you having actual feelings and for those feelings to prompt you to make big important life decisions?”

“Little of column A and a little of column B…” Tim said far too casually, tilting his head to one side.

“Well, it turns out I’m on to your little secret. I know you have actual feelings, bro. And I know that those feelings made you leave and I know that they also made you come back. And I know you’re not sure what to do with them right now. And I know that they suck. And I’m sorry the feelings you’re feeling right now suck, but I love you and I missed you and I’m glad you’re home and so is Krypto.”

Tim put his chopsticks down again and leaned back in his chair, looking directly at Kon for the first time since they started their conversation.

“That…” Tim began, then shook his head and took a deep breath. “Thanks. I think I needed to hear that...”

Kon grabbed his beer off the table and lifted it in a toast to Tim.

“Well then, welcome home, Wonder Boy. You’ve been missed.”

Tim smiled at Kon and lifted his beer as well, tapping it hollowly against Kon’s can in a toast.

“So what are you going to do with the business you drummed up over in good old China?” Kon asked. “It seems like you did pretty well. Hiro said you built up a pretty big client base.”

Tim hummed again and continued eating.

“I’ll have to make a pile of trips back over there to tie up loose ends, for sure. But Hiro is helping me out. He’s in the right hemisphere and learned my systems quickly enough. Unfortunately his Chinese isn’t great but I hired some contractors to help maintain my current accounts. I’ve got a few clients in the states and I figure I can focus on growing the US portion of business while I settle slowly back in here.”

“The security biz is booming, I guess.” Kon observed.

“Hackers get more and more sophisticated every year,” Tim said. “Keeping them honest makes my daytime life almost as interesting as my nighttime one.”

“I hear that,” Kon said. “That’s why I decided to join Metro 17. Another way to help people. Plus what I learn here does help me with Super-pursuits. I know how to put a fire out a hell of a lot faster. Plus the first aid helps.”

They talked a little longer about Tim’s time in China and Kon’s hope for a promotion at Metro 17 sometime in the next year or so. After they finished their food and washed their dishes, it became apparent to Krypto that he wasn’t going to get any extra treats, so he wandered back into Kon’s living room and curled up in his dog bed. 

Tim finally left a few hours later and Kon slouched onto his sofa.

It had been fun to drink beer and eat take out with Tim again, just like old times, but… 

It was clear that Tim was still dealing with things he didn’t want to talk about. Kon could tell he wasn’t entirely happy, even after moving back to Gotham. It bothered Kon. Objectively, he understood that Tim wasn’t suddenly going to be happy and totally devoid of lingering bad feelings just because Kon said he loved him and he missed him. That just wasn’t how anything worked...

But that didn’t mean Kon didn’t wish it was how things worked. 

Kon had been hoping to be the immediate antidote to Tim’s bad feelings.

It was looking like maybe he’d have to try a little harder to get there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus points to anyone who can guess who Auguste is named after!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason loses his flame-thrower, Tim does some detective work, Krypto saves the day and Kon says something he firmly believes but regrets saying out loud.

Tim woke up to find Auguste sleeping on his belly. The large cat was emitting a noise that seemed like a cross between a purr and a snore. Tim smiled as he reached up a hand to slowly run over the soft fur on Auguste’s back.

Tim couldn’t help but think that it was kind of nice not to be waking up alone this morning, even if it was just Auguste he was waking up with.

Reaching for his phone, Tim scrolled through a few work emails, text messages and the family group chat (Jason lost his flame thrower and Damian refused to share his), before he pulled up the reports for the facial recognition programs he had started running the day before. 

Looking over the reports, Tim saw that he had a few positive hits. That was promising. Tim would need his laptop to look into the results a bit deeper. 

Tim let Auguste sleep a little bit longer as he skimmed through the news and answered a few work emails. When his bladder finally insisted that he get out of bed, Tim carefully lifted Auguste off of his tummy, put him on the pillow next to him, and slipped out from under the covers..

After a shower and a change of clothes, Tim headed downstairs. The only thing in his kitchen that was unpacked was the Chemex coffee maker, his kettle and a few mugs. Tim put his kettle to boil and set up the pot, filter and the grounds. 

Tim mentally promised himself that he would actually go to the grocery store and buy real food while he dug out a cereal bowl, a spoon, a box of Crocky Crunchies and a carton of milk. He poured a bowl out for himself along with some milk and grimaced down at breakfast.

Tim set his laptop up on the kitchen counter and thought longingly of a nice omelette with spinach and leeks as he spooned up his cereal. Mentally willing the kettle to boil faster, Tim pulled up the reports from the facial recognition algorithms he had set up the day before at Kon’s place.

The program had identified a couple of dozen potential matches. Tim was half way through reviewing the images when his phone rang. Tim glanced down at the screen and saw Jason’s name pop up. Tim rolled his eyes as he picked up the phone and accepted the call.

“Can you believe that little brat? He isn’t even using--”

“I think the real question at hand here is: ‘How did you lose your flame-thrower?’” Tim interrupted. “The one you had wasn’t small.”

“I’m… in between places right now and--”

“Wait, what does that mean?”

“It means I’m kinda living in this bunker under the GCPD’s ninth precinct and I kinda have this apartment in South Gotham I’m not really supposed to be in and then there’s this warehouse I have some vehicles in... But I also kinda don’t really live in any of those places so…”

“Yeah, so… I can see how it would be very easy to lose a flamethrower in all that confusion…” Tim said sardonically as he took a bite of cereal.

“Exactly,” Jason agreed without irony.

Tim took a moment to wonder if Jason was deliberately mis-reading his sarcasm, but then decided he didn’t care.

“What are the chances you have one?” Jason asked, hopefully.

“A place to live or a flame-thrower?”

Jason was quiet for a long moment before answering with a smile in his voice.

“I won’t say no to either, actually. You do have a lot of rooms in that place and it’s much nicer than the apartment I’m not really supposed to be in.”

“You absolutely cannot move in here and I left all my flamethrowers in the Batcave when I moved to China.”

“You didn’t use a flamethrower at all when you were in China?” Jason asked, his voice full of shock and disbelief. 

“Two things. One: Poison Ivy doesn’t operate in China so I didn’t really need one that often and Two: when I did need a flame-thrower, I improvised. I suggest you do the same because unless you want to give Bruce a call, I think you’re all out of options here.”

“There’s always the Black Market…” Jason mused. “You think the Penguin is still pissed about me shooting him and all that?”

Obviously, in Jason’s mind, dealing with a super villain he actively shot just a few years ago, would be preferable to giving Bruce a call…

Actually, he might have a point there.

“Mmmmm, but once you’ve used a Bat-designed flamethrower, you just can’t go back to the standard US military grade,” Tim pointed out, only half joking.

“Too true,” Jason sighed longingly just as Tim’s kettle came to a boil. “You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to find something that could start at least a mid-sized building on fire.”

“Funny you should say,” Tim said, getting up to pull the kettle off the stove. ”I’m looking for the exact same thing.”

“Oh?” 

“Yeah,” Tim said, as he brought the kettle over to the coffee pot and began slowly pouring the hot water over his coffee grounds. “Kon asked for some help looking for an arsonist who is running around in his neck of Metropolis.”

“Maybe it’s Damian, seeing as he seems to be the only one in the tri-state area with a working flamethrower,” Jason said bitterly.

“Mmmm, I was thinking it was more likely to be a meta, but checking Damian’s alibi when something is actively on fire is never a bad idea,” Tim said with a smile, pulling out a mug.

“You’re a braver man than me, Timmers. The less I know about what that little brat gets up to, the better.”

“Also not a bad policy where Damian is concerned…” Tim said thoughtfully, pouring out a cup of coffee and returning to his laptop. “Especially since he isn’t as small as he used to be. What is he pushing past six foot at this point? Terrifying.”

“And here B and Dick are still fawning all over him like he’s just a little kid. It’s wild. You’d think they would have more sense than that. Just goes to show that I’m actually the smartest guy you know.”

“You might be right. I let him into my home for ten minutes and now I have a cat that snores…” Tim said as he tilted his head to one side in thoughtful agreement.

“Also probably several surveillance devices,” Jason said. “Just make sure you don’t let him spend the night or you’ll end up with the whole place wired floor to ceiling.”

“Ahhh, trying to use Damian to cover for all the ones you planted?”

“I’ll never tell. On a totally unrelated note, your cat does seem to settling in OK.”

“Yeah,” Tim answered, totally ignoring the implication that Jason had been watching his cat over whatever cameras he placed in Tim’s place, “he’s pretty happy and he gets along well with Krypto. Kon brought him over for a trail visit last night and it went really well.”

“Annnnd that’s two.”

“Two?” Tim asked, taking a sip of coffee.

“That’s two times you’ve mentioned Little Boy Blue in the last five minutes without prompting. What’s going on there, Timbo?” Jason asked slyly.

Briefly, Tim wished he wasn’t always surrounded by some of the most insightful people on the planet. It was deeply inconvenient at times.

“I told you, I’m--”

“Helping him solve a mysterious crime. Yeah, yeah, oldest story in the freaking superhero book, little bro.”

“How is that is the oldest story in the super book…?”

“Trust me here, we’ve already established that I’m the smartest guy you know...”

“Oh right, I forgot,” Tim laughed and took another sip of coffee.

“So tell me about how things are going with the case, then?” Jason asked with a faux casual tone to his voice.

“Pretty well. I think we’re making progress. I’ll probably head back out to Metropolis today. Any chance I can get my bike back before that?” 

Jason got quiet for a minute before the sounds of a crinkling paper bag started in over the line. Tim rolled his eyes, because he knew exactly what was coming next.

“Sorry-- Tim…” The bag continued to crinkle loudly as Jason tried to simulate static. “I can’t hear you… We must be… breaking… up…”

“Soooo, that’s a no then?”

“I can’t-- I can’t hear--” Jason kept crinkling the bag and speaking in broken sentences.

“You know I’m a detective, right?” Tim asked conversationally. 

Tim could swear he heard a smile in Jason’s voice when he answered.

“I’m gonna… have to… call you back…” Jason said and then there was more crinkling as the line went dead.

Tim shook head as he put down his cell phone and went back to the reports. Another hour of work and a few more mugs of coffee later he found three potential people who were caught by surveillance at more than one of the fire sites Tim had flagged. Of the three potential perps, one was an older man, one was a man in what looked to be in his late teens or early twenties and another was a thirty-something female.

Tim identified the older man as James Reddens, a retired librarian who was obviously a fixture in the community. While he was at nearly all the sites, it was because the man was literally just everywhere in an eight mile radius from his home. According to police reports Tim had dug up on the man, Reddens walked for hours around his neighborhood. Occasionally, he would stop and take a nap on a bench or in a park, and the cops would do a quick welfare check on him. He was clearly just a lonely old man who didn’t like to be cooped up in his house all day. There was no sign in Reddens’ past records that indicated even a possibility of the man being a meta. 

The woman was named Elizabeth Conners, she was a runner. An ultra-marathon runner, in fact. She ran almost every day for hours. She was signed up for a race in two months time and she was clearly training. Tim picked up footage of her in a couple dozen different surveillance feeds. In all of them she was wearing the same pair of running shoes and a variety of leggings and baggy tank tops.

The last candidate was much more promising than the first two. His name was Adam Corbin, he was a twenty-two year old white male with long, dark hair, a scraggly, patchy beard and the last vestiges of acne. In all the video feeds Tim caught him in, he was wearing a baggy hoodie, jeans and loosely laced hiking boots. He had a knapsack slung over one shoulder and pair of smudged sunglasses covering his eyes.

After a quick background check, Tim found that Corbin was registered for classes with a Community College just a few blocks from the fast food place where the first fire had broken out. From what Tim could dig up, the guy was an average student. He didn’t have a driver’s license or car. His name wasn’t on any lease agreement Tim could find and his voter registration listed his father’s house as his current address.

Corbin wasn’t currently tied to any mysterious fires or bouts of random destruction. That could just mean that he had been careful enough not to be caught yet. 

Or maybe just lucky enough.

Tim spent a little more time digging into Corbin’s family history. His parents had divorced when he was eleven and Corbin had gone to live with his father. Aside from Corbin’s father changing the party on his voter registration card two times in the past four years, Tim didn’t find anything out of the ordinary there. A few parking tickets, one citation from the neighborhood association for not trimming his yew bushes early enough in the spring. 

Nothing that screamed ‘I’m-hiding-a-master-arsonist-in-my-basement.’

The father had remarried about three years after he divorced Adam’s mother and he lived in an apartment for a few years before buying a new home with his new wife. The father worked with the same bank, in the same building at the same position for the last decade. 

Clearly not the kind of guy who rocked boats.

Tim would have said the same thing about his son if Adam hadn’t been caught on tape at nearly all the sites of the fires. The kid fit the profile and was too close to too many sites for it to be a complete coincidence. And, according to Corbin’s credit card statements, he was even known to frequent the fast food joint where the first fire broke out. 

Pulling up a couple of genealogy websites, Tim did a quick search to see if any of Corbin’s relatives had posted DNA testing results on the site. If they had, he could hack into the database, review the complete results from the DNA testing and see if any of the samples in the database had any of the markers for potential metahuman abilities.

After a few minutes of digging, Tim could only find results for Corbin’s step-mother, which was not actually helpful given she was not related by blood to Corbin. Dead end there.

Tim sighed and resigned himself to the fact that he’d have to test the kid for metahuman abilities the old fashioned way.

Tim hated the old fashioned way. Too many bodily fluids. Tim liked it much more when all the info was already at his fingertips on the web.

Tim finally closed out the windows he was working in and picked up his cell to dial Kon.

“Hey man, how you been?” Kon answered, sounding half asleep.

“Did I wake you?” Tim asked, surprised. The minute they had exited puberty, Kon had turned into an early riser. It was strange for him to be sleeping this late.

“It’s cool. I got a late call last night,” Kon answered, yawning. “I only got home a few hours ago.”

“A fire? Was it bad?”

“Naaah, not at all. Kitchen fire. Poor lady working the third shift started a pot of pasta on fire when she fell asleep trying to cook herself dinner. She was a nurse and worked two double shifts in a row.”

“Yeesh, everyone ok?” Tim asked, concern creeping into his voice.

“Yeah, it’s all fine. Just a lot of smoke and pissed off neighbors. No one was hurt, nothing was damaged. The whole thing gave the poor woman a bad scare, though. She was shaking like a leaf when we got there. I’m guessing she’s gonna turn the sound up on her kitchen timer from now on.”

“Or maybe stick with take out after a long shift…”

“That’s hard at four am, take my word for it. I recommend cereal. That’s my go to-- Oh, jeez. Hey, Krypto wants to say hi,” Kon said and Tim heard him pulling the phone away from his face.

There were a few happy woofs on the other end of the line. 

Tim said hello to Krypto and reminded him that he was a good boy. Kon laughed and told Krypto to settle before pulling the phone back up to his face.

“He misses you already.”

“Well then, I have some good news for Krypto,” Tim said.

He told Kon what he had found out about Corbin and his family. 

“You really think this is our guy? Even with no criminal record?”

“I think he’s worth following around for a few hours to see if he exhibits any abnormal behavior. And if we happened to follow him to Starbucks and he happened to drop his cup in the trash…”

“Some enterprising young detective might just happen to dig it out of the trash and test his DNA for meta-human components?” Kon ventured with a smile clear in his voice.

“That does sound like something I would do,” Tim said genially.

“Hmmmm, alright. What time do you think you’ll get here?”

“Around dinner, I do actually have to work for a few hours today so I can pay my bills. Maybe unpack a few boxes...”

“You literally have several millionaires on speed dial--” Kon pointed out.

“Yeah, but then I’d have to talk to them…” Tim pointed out.

“Bruce can’t still be mad at you.”

“You’d be surprised at how long that man can hold a hair related grudge. I’m still convinced he only let me be Robin because Dick had a mullet at one point…”

Kon laughed on the other end of the line and Tim smiled.

“Anyway,” Tim continued, “according to his school schedule, his last class today ends at 5:30pm. Let’s meet at your place at five and see if we can pick him up as he leaves for the night.”

Kon agreed, sleepily, and they hung up.

Tim pulled open his work email and went back to answering notes from clients, hoping he would be able to get some work done before he had to head out.

*^*^*^*^*^

Kon was just shoving the last bite of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his mouth when Tim texted him.

Kon glanced down at the notification that popped up on his phone.

*Downstairs. Coming?*

Kon grabbed his jacket and Krypto’s go bag, leashed up Krypto and they were out the door, Kon still chewing his sandwich.

“There’s peanut butter on your face,” was the first thing Tim said, smiling at Kon as he raced out the door.

Tim’s smile was small, but fond and his blue eyes glittered with knowing amusement. Tim was wearing jeans, sneakers and a Knights cap. A light grey scarf was wrapped around his neck and he had on a beat up leather jacket over a threadbare T-shirt. Kon remembered giving Tim that jacket when Kon had grown out of it almost eight years ago now. He was surprised that it still fit Tim. The thing was still a little too large for Tim around the shoulders and patches of the leather were worn out at the elbows. The zipper was undone and jangled at the base of the hem as Tim moved.

Kon wasn’t sure why, but seeing Tim in his old jacket made something warm and almost possessive flood the base of his spine. It burbled up within him, making him want to smile and pull Tim into a hug.

Kon resisted the urge to smile too broadly at Tim. Realistically, he probably still had peanut butter in his teeth and that wasn’t actually a good look for a guy his age. 

Kon rubbed at the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Got it?” Kon asked, but didn’t really need Tim to answer when Krypto started to lick at the back of his hand. 

“Looks like,” Tim said as he breathed out a laugh and nodded down at Krypto still licking Kon’s fingers.

Kon smiled back.

“Half the reason I keep him around,” Kon said, patting Krypto on the side. “Peanut Butter Patrol.”

Tim laughed and the two of them started off, walking down toward Metropolis County Community College where their potential suspect was enrolled. The college was a twenty minute walk from Kon’s apartment and they started off at a brisk pace.

Kon listened, amused, as Tim explained Jason’s flame-thrower dilemma while they walked.

“I have a hard time believing you don’t have a flame-thrower handy, somewhere,” Kon said.

“Mmmm, I could probably put one together pretty easily with the stuff I have in my basement, but it’s better not to let Jason know that or I’ll be missing more than my motorcycle.”

“Luckily, you also have a best friend who shoots lasers from his eyes. I’m happy to help with any of your fire starting needs,” Kon offered.

“Isn’t that against some firefighter oath you took when they gave you the bright yellow overcoat?” Tim teased.

“I mean, I promised never to start a fire I wouldn’t eventually put out…” Kon joked.

“Glad to see they have all their bases covered there,” Tim said wryly and Kon laughed.

The sun was starting to go down in the sky as they rounded the last block before the college. They made their way to the grassy area near the front of the main building. Clusters of students were gathered under trees, around picnic tables and in smoking areas. Kon followed Tim to a tree that was both devoid of college student life and had a good vantage point to keep an eye on all of the doors to the two nearby campus buildings.

“His class is in that building,” Tim said, nodding to a brick building off to the left. “That’s not to say he’ll come out of that building… But I’d say our chances are good.”

“You keep an eye on that one and I’ll watch the doors of the other building?” Kon asked. 

Tim nodded in agreement and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

“Try not to look like you’re staring, though,” Tim said thumbing idly through his phone. “First rule of surveillance is try not to look like you’re looking for someone. Just look bored.”

“Makes sense,” Kon agreed and sat down, resting his back against the trunk of the tree and whistling to Krypto. He patted his thigh and Krypto settled in next to him, resting his furry head on Kon’s leg while Kon pet him and watched the doors of the building out of the corner of his eye.

They chatted briefly while Tim played with his phone and Kon played with his dog.

“There he is,” Tim said, cutting Kon off mid-sentence, but not looking up from his Instagram feed.

Kon cut his eyes to where Tim’s chin was pointed and saw a kid, about twenty, with long dirty looking hair pulled back in a loose braid and a backpack slung over one shoulder.

He was walking alone as his classmates chattered and broke like little jettying waves around him. The guy kept his eyes fixed on his phone, scrolling through something as he walked. He was oblivious to everyone around him, entirely absorbed in what he was seeing on the screen.

Kon stood, brushing off the butt of his jeans as he got ready to take off in pursuit of the guy. Krypto followed suit, snuffling excitedly at Kon’s hip.

“Remember rule number one,” Tim cautioned in a quiet voice. “Let’s let him get ahead of us a little bit before we start after him.”

They followed Corbin off campus and a few blocks towards downtown. The kid detoured to a popular sandwich shop.

Tim and Kon waited outside while Corbin went to make an order.

“No Starbucks cup for us, I guess,” Kon said, watching the building out of the corner of his eye.

“Unfortunately not,” Tim said, sounding disappointed. “Maybe we should have planned this for a morning…”

“We can always try again later if this doesn’t work,” Kon suggested.

“Or we can wait until trash night and dig around for used tissues.”

“Yeah bro, whatever used tissues this kid has in his trash can probably don’t have snot in them. I’d rather take the chance on a Starbucks cup,” Kon said grimly. “I would rather not be put into a situation where I need to hand my cousin an evidence bag full of some other dude’s spunk.”

Tim breathed out a laugh through his nose.

“That is a fair and valid point. But I would like to get some type of DNA off of him sooner rather than later so we can figure out if we need to put Maggie and Peej on high alert about this kid or not.”

“Mmm, yeah. Here he comes--”

When Corbin came out of the sandwich shop, bag in hand, Tim turned his face away and focused on his phone again. Kon crouched down to get eye level with Krypto and rub at his ears. Corbin took off down the street again, this time in the opposite direction of the sandwich shop.

“He’s heading toward the bus stop,” Tim murmured as he watched the kid from under the brim of his baseball cap.

“Follow him to the bus stop?” Kon suggested.

“Mmmmm, let’s try to get as far as we can without rousing his suspicions,” Tim said, thoughtfully.

“He won’t notice us if he’s not expecting to be followed,” Kon said, confidently.

“You have a large, bright white dog,” Tim pointed out in a grim sort of voice. “And that sandwich shop we just followed him to isn’t exactly on the way to the bus.”

“Oh shit. I guess I should have left Krypto at home,” Kon said, suddenly feeling very stupid as he got to his feet.

“No, it’s fine. At least this way if he confronts us, we can say we were just out walking your dog,” Tim said. “It gives us some verisimilitude, at the very least.” 

Kon felt relieved. He hadn’t even considered how Krypto would stand out while they were walking around. Kon was just so used to taking Krypto with him as often as he could.

“I still don’t think--” Kon started in again but broke off when he felt Krypto's leash slip from his hand. Kon could only watch, dumbfounded as Krypto took off down the street without warning.

Krypto was running at half speed, his red leash trailing behind him as he rushed off towards the bus stop where Corbin was waiting, face still buried in his phone. Shock momentarily paralyzed Kon as he watched Krypto run off.

"Son of a--" Kon started but Tim took off at a run after Krypto and Kon followed suit.

"Krypto!" Tim called as he chased after Krypto.

Corbin finally looked up from his phone as Krypto came up short at his side. Yipping and prancing around Corbin’s feet, Krypto butted his head against Corbin’s hand, playfully.

"Krypto!" Kon shouted as he rushed up. "Sit boy! Sit!"

Kon grabbed a hold of Krypto's leash and looked up at Corbin.

"I'm so sorry!" Kon said. "He never just takes off like that. He's usually really well behaved.”

Corbin smiled at Kon and held a hand out to Krypto tentatively, just as Tim caught up to all of them. Krypto sniffed it and then licked Corbin’s fingers excitedly.

"I think he just likes me," Corbin said, still smiling at Krypto. “Dogs always like me.”

"Yeah, it looks like he does," Tim said, his voice light. "Are you being naughty, Krypto?"

Corbin was absorbed watching Krypto lick at his fingers, but Kon caught Tim gesturing to Krypto out of the corner of his eye. Krypto let out another yip and jumped up on his hind legs, putting his front paws on Corbin’s shoulders and knocking him a few steps back.

Corbin let out a yelp and Tim came up behind him and placed a steadying hand on his back.

"Hey there, boy!" Tim said just as Kon yelled to Krypto. “Let’s settle.”

"Down, Krypto! Sit!"

Krypto backed off and Tim stepped over to grab at Krypto's leash with Kon.

"I'm really sorry! Again, he never does this," Kon said, trying to get Krypto to heel.

"You just got him all excited," Tim laughed, smiling at Corbin. "He was happy to see you,"

Corbin smiled at them nervously and was about to say something just as his bus pulled up to the stop next to them.

"It's ok. No worries. He’s a cute dog," Corbin said, pulling out his bus pass and waving goodbye to the three of them.

Kon watched the bus pull into traffic and take off down the road, toward the nearby highway.

"Jeeze, boy," Kon said to Krypto. "So much for being subtle. Thank Rao the guy didn't call the cops on us."

"He wouldn't have," Tim said. "Krypto knew what he was doing, didn't you boy?"

Tim crouched down next to Krypto and gave him a hug and a kiss on the top of the head.

Kon couldn't help but smile as he looked down at them.

"You think so? From where I stood, it looked like he was very interested in that guy's sandwich..."

"Nah," Tim said, getting back to his feet. "He knew exactly what he was doing?"

"Oh?"

"Absolutely. Verisimilitude, remember?"

"How?" 

Tim smiled and lifted one of his hands. In it was a hair tie. It was small and black with a few long hairs tangled in it.

“Pulled it out when I helped him keep his balance,” Tim said smugly, slipping the hair tie and hairs into a small baggie.

"Ohhhh, you boys got yourself some DNA, huh?" Kon asked, laughing as he pulled Tim into a hug.

Tim leaned into the hug, fitting neatly into Kon's arms as he hugged Kon back. Tim felt warm and perfect in Kon's arms. His slender, long fingered hands pressed against the small of Kon's back and he pressed a cool cheek against Kon's chest.

Sighing, Kon couldn't help but tighten his arms around Tim and hold him closer just for a few more seconds.

"Anyone ever tell you, you're too smart for your own good?"

"Lucky for me I have a partner in crime who can keep up with me," Tim said.

"I do my best, but you do keep me on my toes, Wonder Boy."

"I was talking about Krypto," Tim teased. Kon couldn't see the smile on Tim's face because his cheek was still pressed to Kon's chest but he could hear it in his voice.

"Heeeeey," Kon said, pulling back to mock glare down at Tim.

"Don't worry, next time Krypto and I will let you in on our diabolical plans in advance," Tim promised, smiling slyly up at Kon.

The smile was bright, mischievous and full, it made Kon's chest ache and his heart jump. A warm sensation flooded Kon's belly as he smiled back down at Tim.

"God, you are beautiful."

"I-- what?" Tim said, the smile suddenly vanished from his face and he pulled back from Kon's hug.

Kon hadn't even realized he had spoken. The words had just sort of tumbled out of his mouth. He hadn't even consciously thought them before he spoke.

"I just-- I--" Kon stuttered, and Tim took a few steps back, away from Kon.

"It's late. I think you're tired. Maybe we should go home," Tim said, cutting his eyes away from Kon's face and starting down the street toward's Kon's apartment.

"No, Tim--" Kon started and grabbed for Tim's elbow.

Tim didn't even turn back to face Kon as he pulled his elbow out of Kon's grasp.

"It's been a crazy week. I totally understand--"

"You don't understand," Kon said, starting down the street after Tim, needing to walk at a trot to keep up.

"Kon, I don't think you should--" Tim began and then broke off. "I'm just saying that you maybe need to think about what you're going to say next. And maybe you should take some time to think about it before you say it."

"What does that mean?" Kon asked, coming up short in the middle of the sidewalk.

"It means I'm not sure you want to say what you were about to say to me and I'm even less sure that I want to hear it."

“I am sure. I’ve always been sure. And you already know that. You know that--”

“Stop,” Tim said, cutting Kon off. “Don’t.”

Tim walked off then, gesturing for Kon not to follow with a sharp swing of his hand. 

So Kon didn’t.

Kon walked back home with Krypto in tow, feeling a little stunned and very stupid. He stumbled upstairs to his apartment, feeling both numb and like an absolute asshole.

Keying open the lock to his front door, Krypto pushed past him and trotted inside. Kon kicked off his shoes and pulled off Krypto's leash. He double checked if Krypto's water dish was full, then pulled out his cell. He dialed Bart's number on auto pilot. When Bart chirruped an answer on the other end of the line, all Kon could manage was a groan.

"What happened?" Bart asked. “That was not a good groan.”

"I'm a fucking idiot," Kon wailed, flopping onto his bed and rolling around a little in despair.

"This is a known fact. You shouldn't be so upset over a known fact." Bart pointed out, his mouth full of something or other as he spoke.

"Yeah, but I was a bigger fucking idiot than even I realized."

"What'd you do?"

"I told Tim he was beautiful."

"But you do think Tim is beautiful. Also a known fact."

"Yeah, I really, really do think he’s beautiful. Especially when he smiles all--"

"Ew. Gross. Stop. Do not need to hear. Please take my undying support of your feelings for him as read and stop talking about Tim's face like that."

"That's fair. I'll stop. But still."

"Still?"

"He didn't like it."

"He didn't like that you called him beautiful?"

"He did not. He like, walked away and essentially told me to shut the fuck up."

"He told you to shut the fuck up? That doesn't sound like Tim. Were you drunk?"

"Stone cold sober. And those weren't his exact words, but they may as well have been."

"What were his exact words?"

"Something along the lines that I should stop talking and that I need to think before I say shit."

"Also a fact. You're really just telling me facts here, buddy. I cannot fix facts. Facts are just facts. They're like math. You can't change math..."

"I know," Kon wailed again.

"What do you want me to do, then?" Bart wailed back.

"I have no idea!" Kon shouted.

"Ok... So then... Want me to grab some booze and come over?"

"How much booze do you have?"

"Probably not enough, I can absolutely get more."

"I will absolutely need more."

"Deal. Be there in ten minutes."

Bart disconnected the call and Kon went back to rolling around on his bed replaying the whole scene with Tim in his head as he wallowed in feeling utterly moronic.

In the moment, he had wanted to come up with something clever to say, something romantic and dashing that would make Tim leap into his arms and kiss him passionately. Profess his undying love and his desire to wake up each morning with Tim in his arms.

Except it was apparently a known fact that Kon was a fucking idiot and he couldn't come up with something intelligent to say. 

He was bad at this. Very, very bad. Everyone he had ever lucked into dating had eventually broken up with him, left the planet or traveled back into the future without him. He was even batting 500 with his two best friends. Tim had left for China with barely a word to Kon and had only intermittently stayed in touch.

Maybe Tim had been onto something with running away to an isolated monastery in the wilds of China. Kon briefly wondered what the Kryptonian equivalent of that would be but figured it would be something like going to the planet Daxam in the 71st century or something.

Not actually appealing.

Bart showed up two minutes early, pried Kon off the bed, poured two shots down his throat and proceeded to make several freezer pizzas and mixed drinks.

While they didn't come to any reasonable resolution over the Tim thing, Kon did get pizza, drinks, and to play video games with Bart, so the evening didn't end as poorly as it could have.

He was, realistically, still batting 500 where best friends were concerned.

Kon just hoped he hadn’t just chased Tim back off to China all because he couldn’t watch his mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh, guys. Drama.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim bros out with Peej, chills with Jason, and argues with Bruce.
> 
> Kon, on the other hand, eats omelettes with Bart and wishes that Maggie Sawyer wasn't quite so smart.

"Timbo! Are you partying hard late night in China or are you back on East Coast time?"

Peej had answered Tim’s phone call on the second ring and Tim smiled when he heard the teasing tone in her voice.

"The latter. I'm back in Gotham City."

"Ohhhh, for how long? We should get drinks. There’s that new place that does cocktail flights!"

"I’m here for the foreseeable future. I decided to move back to Gotham..."

"How's that going?" Peej asked, interestedly.

"I have a cat now and I was up until four am building Jason a new flamethrower last night with what I had laying around my house so..."

"Business as usual?" Peej laughed.

"Pretty much..."

"How's your cat? I want to meet her."

"Him," Tim corrected. "And you're welcome to visit any time after we’ve settled in. He mostly just sleeps so he's not exactly an exciting host."

"I like sleep. If he also has ice cream and wine, he sounds like just my kind of host, actually."

"I do have wine, not so much ice cream anymore..."

"Damian ate it all?"

"It literally took him a day to get through a gallon, I don't get it..."

"He's a growing boy."

"I do not know how it is possible for him to grow any more, unless he is inhuman. Actually, maybe he is. Maybe he’s just a Sugar Demon. Is there a blood test for that?"

"Not yet."

"Can you work on that for me, doc?"

"Sugar Demons are a serious threat to ice cream everywhere. They'll be next on my list, I promise," Peej said with a laugh.

"Speaking of your list… Any chance I can re-prioritize that?”

"You got a thing?"

"Yeah, I think I have a thing."

Tim talked Peej through the case he and Kon were working on. He told her about his concerns that the guy they were dealing with was a meta who may struggle to control his powers when he was under stress or pressure.

Peej whistled as Tim finished walking her through the last few days and all the research he had been doing.

"Wow, yeah. If he is a meta, we may need to reach out to him to help him find ways to control his powers," Peej said thoughtfully.

"That's the thing, I got a DNA sample last night. I've done some initial analysis that I think points to him being a meta, but I was hoping you could do some more testing in your labs. Maybe do a confirmation and potentially come up with a way to help control or suppress his powers."

"Last time I got a DNA sample from a Bat, I had to swab it off the sharpened edge of a Batarang," Peej said in a tone of voice that very much indicated that she was not a fan of that particular methodology for obtaining blood samples.

"Mine's a hair sample. No maiming was involved. I promise. All above board"

"Alright, I can take a look and run some tests.."

"Thanks so much, I appreciate the help. I'm still trying to settle in, so my facilities aren't totally up to speed yet.”

“I can help you set up your new lab if you need it,” Peej offered. “I have some small experience.”

“Thanks, I need to order some more equipment before I’m totally back in action with all the science,” Tim said.

They talked briefly about the centrifuge Tim was thinking about getting before Peej turned the topic back to the case Tim was working with Kon.

“You said this guy was in Metropolis?” Peej asked. “Did you tell Maggie was going on?”

“Kon called her and let her know what we were potentially dealing with. He’s been in touch with her as we learn more.”

“I bet Kon’s happy you’re back and working with him on this,” Peej said. “He’s been missing you since you left. He and Bart traipse around like they’re missing a limb.”

“That seems like an exaggeration,” Tim hedged. 

They chatted for a few more minutes about the tests Peej was planning to run on the DNA. They made plans to touch base soon and Tim hung up.

Tim had just turned back to a few client emails when a text from Jason popped up on his phone.

*I’m outside. Let me in.*

Tim padded over to the front door and popped open the lock. Jason didn’t even say hello as he pushed past Tim into the house. Auguste came over to inspect Jason’s boots as he kicked them off in the entryway. 

“The flame-thrower actually worked better than my last one. Did you write down what you did?” Jason asked, leaning down to pet Auguste briefly before getting back to his feet.

“I didn’t see anything in the news today about a fire,” Tim said following Jason through his living room. “What did you destroy?”

“Doesn’t matter. Did you write it down?” Jason asked, making his way into Tim’s kitchen and grabbing an apple from Tim’s nearly barren fridge.

“I did not. And I’m feeling more and more anti-fire the longer I spend working this case with Kon, so…” Tim said, following Jason into the kitchen.

“You’re still doing that thing? With Kon? Is this actually a real thing or an excuse for you guys to hang out more?” Jason asked between bites of the apple.

“It’s a real case and we are hanging out more. I have missed him. More than I think I really realized while I was in China.” Tim said guiltily, trying hard not to think about the upset expression on Kon’s face last night when Tim had shut him down.

“Yeah, it’s weird. Stuff like that can really creep up on you,” Jason said thoughtfully through a mouthful of apple. “Especially with people you’ve known forever.”

“Yeah, I guess I forgot how close we used to be…” Tim said guiltily.

Tim couldn’t help but wonder if they would ever be that close again. Things between them were a lot easier before Kon decided that he was tired of trying to hide how he felt about Tim. Tim couldn’t say he could blame Kon for getting tired of dancing around the edges of how he felt. It must be a different sort of liberating to Kon to not even try to hide how he felt about Tim anymore. Tim totally understood that. 

But still...

It was hard. Tim was feeling way too off balance with his life in general just now to deal with Kon’s sudden overtures. 

Though… 

Maybe Kon making overtures would have been enough to throw him off balance on all their own.

“I know the feeling. I get that way with you and Dickie sometimes. It’s easy to take some relationships for granted,” Jason said with a shrug. “And then suddenly they turn into something different without you meaning for them to. Something you maybe didn’t expect. And sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes that’s a bad thing, but it’s a pretty undeniable thing.”

Tim couldn’t help but think about Kon then. About Kon’s smile and Kon’s laugh and how it felt when Kon told him he was beautiful. How his stomach dropped out and his face got warm.

“You ok, Timmers?” Jason asked, sounding concerned and curious.

“I’m fine, I’ve just been… I don’t know. Distracted, I guess.”

“Distracted?”

Tim shook his head, trying to figure out how to get around Jason’s brotherly interrogation. 

“I feel like that happened with a lot of people when I left for China. I think I didn’t expect to have to renegotiate so many relationships. It’s just making it hard to focus on what’s going on in Gotham or Metropolis, I guess…”

“I guess I can see that. But all you can really do at this point is focus on moving forward with your life and relationships here. ”

“Jason--” 

“Nah, man. I’m right about this. Move on. Focus on what you have here in Gotham. Besides, what else have you got going on right now?”

What else did he have? 

The question made Tim’s mind wander to Kon and Metropolis and…

And he really wished it hadn’t.

Jason held up his apple core, waving it in front of Tim's face to catch his attention.

"You got a trash can or something, bud?" Jason asked, looking pointedly around his kitchen.

"Under the sink," Tim said, gesturing to the cupboard door in question.

Jason pulled the door open and tossed the apple core in the trash can inside. When he closed the door, he went back to looking around Tim's kitchen. He eyed the stack of boxes, totally untouched, by the stove. Then he looked over the half open boxes of dishes sitting on the counter near the sink.

"Have you unpacked anything at all since you got here?"

"I mean... My coffee maker, a couple of cereal bowls, some towels and stuff..."

"Soooo, just enough to survive?"

"I mean..."

"Did you spend all your money on the house and now you can't afford furniture or something? I have an old couch you can have if you want it."

Tim shuddered at the thought, thinking about past couches Jason had owned over the years. Jason took pride in never having spent actual money on a sofa. He just seemed to... obtain them... somehow. Tim truly and sincerely never wanted to know how.

"Absolutely not. I do not want your old couch under any circumstances."

"Harsh."

"All of your couches always look gross. Every single one."

"Double harsh."

"Steph helped me pick furniture out a few weeks back. I have it ordered and paid for. It's set to be delivered the day after tomorrow. I'm just waiting for the delivery."

"Thank god, I'm really tired of eating here standing over your kitchen island."

"It's not great," Tim conceded. "I have a chair downstairs in the basement but..."

"But why would you bring one up here? You know, where you live."

Tim gave Jason a dirty look and shook his head.

"You can leave, you know?"

Jason grinned at Tim.

"Yeah but then who would give you lots of shit?"

Tim just rolled his eyes in response.

"I'll have stuff in another day or two. It'll be nice to have an actual bed to sleep in instead of a mattress on the floor."

"Yeah I bet. Even I have a bed to sleep in."

"And several filthy couches to sleep on as well..."

"They're perfectly serviceable couches."

"Serviceable to who?"

"Anyone who isn't an asshole, apparently."

Tim rolled his eyes and was about to point out that Jason was very much an asshole, but his phone rang and interrupted them.

Tim glanced down at the read out. He bit off a groan and Jason looked at him and lifted an eyebrow in inquiry.

"Ugh," Tim said. "It's Bruce."

"Ohhhh, he knows you still haven't shaved," Jason intoned in a spooky sort of voice. "Beware!"

Tim snorted out a laugh.

"It's possible... I did tell him I was never going to shave again."

"Whelp, that's my cue to leave. Have fun fighting with B," Jason called back to Tim as he took off towards Tim's front door.

Tim heard the door shut behind Jason as he flicked the call live.

"Hey Bruce, what's up?"

Tim hadn’t talked to Bruce since the family dinner the first night he had been home. Tim had appreciated the gesture of the welcome home dinner. He really had. But Dick and Jason were notably absent from the table that night and Harper was clearly wishing she was home studying for an exam, so the dinner hadn’t been particularly fun or lively. And Tim had been so jet lagged, exhausted and wrong-footed that the whole thing had just left him feeling stressed and out of sorts.

Bruce must have sensed that, since he hadn’t called to speak with Tim since that night.

Or maybe he was still pissed about the facial hair.

Even money with Bruce.

"How is Auguste settling in?" Bruce asked, clearly wanting to start this particular conversational sparring match off slow and gentle.

"You mean Damian hasn't been giving you a blow by blow account of his transition annotated with video and photographic evidence?"

"I would appreciate your perspective on the subject."

"He doing well. He's all settled in and seems happy."

"That's good to hear. He is a very nice cat."

"So did he really fight with Pennyworth over food, or was that incident orchestrated by you and Alfred in an attempt to not exceed the county's pet limit?"

Bruce hesitated on the other end of the line.

"Two cats is... a lot of cats..." Bruce hedged and Tim laughed.

"Damian doesn't seem too broken up about dropping him off here, anyway," Tim said. "He seems pleased with how Auguste is settling in."

"He's not as upset about Auguste leaving as I thought he might be. He is very fond of Auguste and I think it made it easier for him to give the cat up knowing that he could go visit him at your house as often as he liked."

"Wonderful. Something to look forward," Tim said sarcastically.

Bruce was quiet for a long moment on the other end of the line before speaking again in a slow, careful tone of voice.

"You two have been getting along a lot more now than when you were younger. I think this is a good opportunity for you to rethink and maybe redefine your relationship with Damian. A fresh start, almost."

"Are you saying you want me to be nicer to my brother, Bruce?"

"I'd like you to be nicer to all of your brothers."

"Not my sisters though," Tim teased.

"You're already very nice to your sisters. They were all very excited to help you move home."

"Mmmm, yeah. They were a huge help. All of them. I couldn't have done it without them. We're set to have brunch in a couple of days so we can pick out some other stuff for the place."

"That sounds... Very nice. Are your brothers coming?"

"Are you serious? Can you imagine Jason at a brunch discussing decorating techniques? With a little Mimosa glass in one hand and petit four in the other?"

Bruce was silent on the other end of the line but Tim could sense his amusement.

"Jason has been by your new home?" Bruce asked, his voice still tinged with humor.

"Yeah they've all stopped by at some point. Except Dick. I guess he's busy in Bludhaven."

"He is working on a case up there. Actually, I think it's related to a case I'm working on myself."

Bruce spent about five minutes explaining to Tim about a Russian Export company they thought might be linked to people trafficking. They were bringing ships in to Gotham Bay as well as Bludhaven.

"We think the key to this whole thing is a code outlining what they are importing in the shipping manifests. If we can crack that code, we can figure out what's about to flood the streets of Gotham and Bludhaven and maybe take out the distributors, which could lead us to the ring leaders, except..."

"Except?"

"There's hundreds of shipments and dozens of ships. I've obtained the digital copies of the manifests and there are quite a lot of data in the files."

"Hmmmm," Tim hummed thoughtfully as Bruce spoke.

"I was wondering..."

"Yeah?"

"How well does that Language Pattern Processing software you developed work in Russian?"

"That... Is a good question. Theoretically, it should work. The more data there are to parse the more accurate the patterns it discerns will be..."

They chatted for another ten minutes about how to make Tim's algorithms work best with the Russian language data it would be run on. Bruce promised to send the files over as soon as he could and Tim promised to get to work on the files. It would take a few hours of work but Tim was pretty sure he could adapt the algorithms to work with Bruce's data.

It would be interesting to see how much manipulation of his original code would be needed to adjust to a new language.

"Thanks, Tim. I appreciate the help," Bruce said cautiously.

"No problem. Happy to help," Tim said, distractedly, still thinking about how to adapt his code.

"You know, you don't... you don't always have to," Bruce said, slowly.

"I don't have to what?"

"You don't always have to help. When we all ask. I know you're working with Conner on a case in Metropolis and Damian said you've been helping Jason. Plus you're moving home and relocating your business. If you have too much on your plate, please just tell me."

"No, no, no, it's fine," Tim said. "I can tinker with it. It'll be an interesting project."

"Certainly. Just remember that... You don't always need to say yes to us."

"I feel like I do OK saying no to all of you," Tim protested.

"You secretly wanted that cat?"

"I didn't not want him... Besides, I just kicked Jason out of my house and I told you I wasn't ever shaving again. There's two nos."

"Have you by the way?"

"Have I what?"

"Shaved."

"You'll never know."

"I will know immediately upon seeing you next."

"Bye, Bruce," Tim sing-songed into the phone.

He could hear Bruce sigh on the other end of the line.

"Goodbye, Tim."

And they both hung up.

*^*^*^*^*^*

“Are you gonna call him today?” Bart asked.

They were settled into Kon’s kitchen with Krypto laying in his dog bed off to one side. Kon worked on making them breakfast while Bart and Krypto watched. Krypto would occasionally get up from his bed and whimper at one of them, begging for food before realizing he wasn’t getting any more treats and heading back to his bed.

“Who? Tim?” Kon asked, pulling eggs and veggies from the fridge.

“Yeah, that guy,” Bart answered ironically, sort of vibrating on the barstool that was set up around Kon’s kitchen island.

“I don’t know. I maybe need to give him space--” Kon answered, grabbing a cutting board and starting to chop vegetables.

“Last time we gave him space he ran all the way to China.” Bart pointed out, zipping over to steal a piece of pepper from Kon’s cutting board and zipping right back to his bar stool. “I say, this time around, we take another route and smother him with undying affection until he promises to never leave us again.”

“I feel like neither option will work well,” Kon said grimly as he tossed the veggies and some butter in a pan. 

Bart hummed as he considered what Kon had said.

“Face it, Bart, it took him thirty seconds to run the fuck away when all I did was tell him I thought he was beautiful,” Kon said bitterly as he grabbed a tall glass and cracked some eggs into it before scrambling them with a fork.

“In his defense, you did just spring that on him, man. It can be hard to catch up to that when you’re not expecting it.”

“In my defense, if he didn’t know I thought he was beautiful by now, The World’s Greatest Detective hasn’t been training him very well.”

“That’s the thing. He has to have always known, it’s just that he never knew what to do about it. He never shut you down, or told you to fuck off, he just let you feel what you felt and--”

“Ran away to China to get far, far away from me...”

Bart leaned back and looked up at the ceiling of Kon’s kitchen. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Not just you. Do you ever think…” Bart started then trailed off.

“Do I think what?” Kon asked, pouring the eggs into the pan. He grabbed a spatula and covered the omelette with a lid.

“Do you ever think that we needed Tim so much that we didn’t give him the chance to need us?”

Kon spun around and looked at Bart, inquisitively. 

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that… When we were younger, we needed Tim, right? When something went wrong or something was just hard, we always went to him. When the Bats need help, they go to him. Hell, he’s been home for a week and he’s already fostering animals and building flamethrowers. Who does that for Tim? Who does he go to when he’s sad or confused or when his friend tells him he’s beautiful and he doesn’t know what to do about it?”

“I don’t know... Cass maybe?” Kon said, shaking his head. “And we never knew about it because she literally doesn’t talk to anyone but Tim, Steph and Harper?”

“I think you should call him,” Bart said. “I think you should see if maybe he wants to talk.”

“Yeah,” Kon sighed. “Maybe… Or maybe I should just--” Kon was just pulling the omelette out of the pan when his cell phone rang.

Kon reached for it as he handed the plate off to Bart. 

Kon’s heart fluttered in his chest when he saw Tim’s name and picture on the read out.

“Fuck, it’s Tim. What do I do?”

“Answer it,” Bart said with his mouth full of food.

Kon swiped the call live and held the phone up to his ear.

“Hey Tim, how’s Auguste?” Kon asked and then grimaced at Bart.

Bart mouthed ‘What the hell are you doing?’ at Kon and shook his head.

He had no idea what he was doing.

Obviously.

“Um, Auguste is good,” Tim said, sounding a little confused. “He’s still sleeping. I’m not actually sure that he’s ever stopped sleeping for longer than ten minutes at a time...”

“Lucky guy,” Kon joked. “What’s up?”

“I did some preliminary tests. Our hypothesis seems to be bearing out. I’m getting markers of a metahuman. But I do want Peej to do a confirmation.”

“That sounds great,” Kon said. “So what’s the plan there?”

“I’m going to swing by her lab and drop off the sample--” Tim started but Kon cut him off.

“Great! I’ll go with you!” Kon said brightly and a little too loudly apparently because Bart grimaced at him and used the hand holding his fork to gesture in a downward motion, clearly indicating that he should tone it down a little.

“Um, sure,” Tim said, hesitantly.

“When will you get to town?” 

“I need to finish up some work today, but I’ll be there around six tonight. Karen said she’d stay late at her lab and wait for me to drop the stuff off,” Tim said.

“Awesome. Meet me here? Maybe we can grab some dinner after?”

“Uh, sure. That would be great.”

Kon said goodbye and slumped down on the counter next to Bart, who had long since finished his omelette. 

“I’m a fucking idiot,” he groaned.

“You absolutely are,” Bart said sympathetically and patted Kon comfortingly on the shoulder.

“Aren’t you supposed to be supporting me?”

“I’m supporting your efforts not to be an idiot,” Bart said. “By reinforcing all the times you act like an idiot.”

Kon just groaned and shook his head.

“On the plus side,” Bart said. “You have a date.”

Kon just slumped on his kitchen floor and tried not to sink into the linoleum.

*^*^*^*^*^*^

Karen was hard at work in her lab when they got there. She was examining a centrifuge and didn't hear Kon and Tim come in.

Kon called to her and she spun around, smiling at the two of them, two vials of blood in each hand.

"Hey boys," she called cheerfully. "I hear you got something for me."

"We sure do," Tim said, smiling at her.

Karen placed the blood in a vial rack set to the side of her lab bench and walked over to give Tim a hug.

"I didn't think it was possible, but you may have gotten skinnier," Karen said to Tim, giving him a light kiss on the cheek.

"It's not possible. I am not skinnier, your arms have just gotten even more powerful," Tim joked and gave her a quick kiss in return.

"Oh yeah, that sounds about right," Karen said before moving to Kon.

"How are you?" Kon asked, hugging her back. “Been awhile.”

"I'm doing great. Playing with blood samples. But I hear you have some DNA for me that is absolutely not blood."

Tim handed her the sample and told her about the collection process. She laughed as they reviewed potential contamination sources before Karen put the sample in her drawer.

"Good thing you two dopes have Krypto to keep an eye on you," she teased.

"Good thing, for sure," Tim said. "I don’t know what we would have done if he hadn't decided to play happy go lucky puppy."

"I'm just glad the guy wasn't terrified of large, white, long fanged dogs who were clearly poorly," Kon said wryly. “We got lucky there.”

Karen laughed again and they talked through their testing process. They were half way through her routine when the doors to the lab pushed open with a whoosh.

"Ohhhh, looks like I'm crashing a party of over here," Maggie Sawyer said as she walked into the lab, giving Karen an airy wave as she eyed Tim and Kon speculatively.

"Hey Mags," Karen said giving her a wide smile.

Maggie walked over to the three of them and eyed the vials of blood on Karen’s workbench suspiciously.

"This have something to do with the meta the big guy called me about a few days ago?"

"Yeah we think we have a DNA sample to test," Tim told her. "We're hoping for some intel on how we might be able to suppress or control his powers."

"That would be good. I looked into some of those fires you said could be attributed to this guy. They were pretty brutal. We're lucky that no one was in those buildings. I don’t think anyone could have survived fires that bad."

"We think that might be intentional," Kon said. "I don't think he wanted to hurt anyone. I think he just wanted to see what he could do."

"Or he was letting off steam," Tim pointed out. "Maybe it's like a valve he needs to depressurize periodically. Like physiologically."

"Yeah or emotionally," Kon mused.

"You two don't think he's dangerous?" Maggie asked with a healthy dose of skepticism in her voice.

Tim and Kon exchanged looks.

"We didn't say that..." Tim said evenly, eyeing Kon.

"Yeah," Kon said, breathing out. "He didn't seem like a powder keg, but that fire was brutal... Even if he's setting fires to deserted buildings, the first responders are in danger. Plus a fire that bad can spread quickly. Especially in the right conditions. We're lucky nothing spread to nearby buildings the other night because--"

Tim gave Kon a warning look and cut him off.

"Yes, there are still hazards. I think he doesn't mean anyone any harm, but that doesn't mean he can't make a mistake and cause harm all the same," Tim said. “Whether he means it or not.”

Maggie looked at Kon speculatively for a long moment before turning her attention back to Tim.

Kon felt butterflies in his stomach at the look on Maggie's face.

Maggie was a smart woman. It was more than possible that he had just tipped his hand and she figured out he worked as a first responder himself.

"Yeah, I'll expedite these tests and get back to you as soon as possible," Karen said. "Hopefully we can work together to find a formula that can neutralize his powers. In the meantime, I would suggest carrying a fire extinguisher in your car, Maggie."

"They're standard police issue--" Kon said reflexively and Tim elbowed him in the shoulder as her spoke.

Maggie was eyeing him suspiciously again.

"But I'm sure Maggie can take care of herself," Kon sputtered.

Kon could tell Tim was trying not to roll his eyes.

"Thanks for the help, Karen. Maggie, we'll keep you posted on our progress. We think we have the kid identified, but we're not sure."

"You think you know who this guy is?" Maggie asked, clearly not happy that they had a possible ID they weren’t sharing with her.

"Innocent until proven guilty," Tim pointed out.

"I need to protect my people--" Maggie started.

"We need to protect the innocent," Tim said. "You'll get a name when we're comfortable giving it to your team. Not a minute before."

"Listen, Maggie," Kon started in, seeing color rise in her cheeks, "I sympathize. I really do. We don't want to see any of your people get hurt any more than you do. We'll update you as soon as we know anything conclusive."

"Trust in the science, Maggie," Karen teased. "It's much more reliable than washed up teen superheroes trying to make it big."

"Harsh," Tim said and smiled at Karen. "I don't feel particularly washed up."

"I do. I for sure feel like someone threw me in a laundry machine this week. I'm just hoping we stop this guy soon so I can get some sleep." Kon said bitterly.

"Same here," Maggie replied acidly.

"I promise that Karen and I are working as hard as we can," Tim said. "I’m going to spend some time tomorrow scoping out potential sites of future fires and setting up surveillance cameras. We'll do everything we can to keep everyone safe. Including our potential perp."

"If you say so..." Maggie drawled. "But I've been doing this for a long time, it's a good idea to nip these things in the bud as soon as possible.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a rough fucking week, guys. Hope this brings some smiles to those of you who also had a rough fucking week.
> 
> Next week is chapter 5 and we'll hit the half way point! Wild, guys. Wild.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kon has a bad day at work. Tim and Jason get drunk. And Kon owes Jason million favors.

Leaning back in his chair, Tim rubbed at his eyes. He had been staring at his computer screen or far too long and his eyelids felt heavy. Tim had been standing at his kitchen island for the past several hours working on more research for the arson case. His back and neck felt tight from standing for way too long and the room had gotten progressively darker as Tim worked.

Tim had finished up all the tasks he needed to do for his security business before switching to the laptop that was keyed into the Bat Computer systems a few hours ago. He thought he would just spend a little bit of time on some initial research around different types of fire using meta humans. Just for a few minutes to get some background on types, sub-types and potential issues that could arise during an encounter with one. It had lead him down a rabbit hole filled with people who just control flames after an established fire had been lit to people whose bodily fluids were entirely combustible. 

One thing Tim did learn for sure after his research, he didn't want to think about the ramifications of explosive saliva ever again. Like not ever.

Even as he dug deeper and deeper in the files Batman had amassed about fire using meta humans, Tim hadn't really gotten any closer to figuring out what their particular meta was capable of. It turned out that the vast varieties and uses for fire and explosives made it impossible to predict either the source of their meta's powers or the full extent of what he could do.

Shaking his head, Tim picked up his phone. He had several notifications he hadn't seen come in over the past few hours. Nothing looked super urgent. A few Instagram likes, two new work emails, three texts from Damian all just asking about Auguste. The only ones that really caught Tim's attention were the seven different texts from Jason. The messages had come in one right after the other, his brother’s impatience clearly growing after each.

*This fucking day, man.*

*Hey you home?*

*Baby bro, you home?*

*Fuck it, I'm coming over anyway.*

*Do you have beer?*

*Tim. Beer?*

*Fuck it. I'm bringing that too. You better be home, you little asshole.*

The last of those messages had come in a little over thirty minutes ago. Tim had just finished scrolling through all of the texts when he heard the lock on his front door turn over.

"How did you even get a key?" Tim called to Jason from where he was standing in the kitchen. "I didn't give you one."

"What? I can't hear you," Jason called back, crinkling a brown paper bag that looked like it contained sandwiches and a couple of six packs.

One day, Jason was going to realize that he wasn’t actually funny and the world would immediately become a better place.

Sighing, Tim just shook his head and promised himself he'd steal his key back off of Jason's key-ring the first chance he got.

Tim put his laptop to the side and stretched stiff and tired muscles, wincing as blood flowed back down to his tingling feet.

Tim had spent way too long staring at a computer screen and now he was having a little bit of an issue transitioning back to speaking with an actual human being. Harper called it Research Fugue. Tim thought the name was probably pretty accurate.

"What did you get?" Tim asked, walking over to Jason.

"Steak sandwiches and beer. Why the fuck are you in the dark, you little weirdo?"

"Lost track of time," Tim said, shrugging. "Did you get french fries too?"

"What does this look like, amateur hour?" Jason asked, flicking on some lights and making his way to the kitchen. "Of course I got fries. Cheese fries, even."

Jason set the food and beer on Tim's counter before looking around the kitchen, clearly in search of plates. Tim nodded to a box on the counter top and Jason dug out a couple of plates and some paper towels.

"Nice," Tim said, pulling open the brown paper bag and peeking inside.

Jason pulled the food away from him possessively and gave Tim a brief glare before reaching inside of the bag. He pulled out the six packs, sandwiches and fries. Grabbing two beers off the rings, Jason popped them open, and handed one to Tim.

Jason stared down at the beer with took a deep breath as he popped it open.

"To the end of stupid fucking days," Jason said, lifting his beer in a toast.

"To stupid fucking days," Tim said, toasting back.

They unwrapped their food and stood at the bar in Tim's kitchen, eating their sandwiches and drinking their beer. The food was good. Greasy and extremely cheesy. Steph would love this place. They ate in mostly companionable silence, until Tim’s curiosity got the better of him.

"So what happened?"

"It all grew the fuck back," Jason said, furiously. "Every single fucking flower. And the stupid fucking things are bigger than when I burned them."

"Ahhh, I thought you said the flamethrower I built you worked really well," Tim said, reaching for a couple of fries. Jason put the plate closer to Tim so he could reach them better.

"It did. For literally two days. Then everything grew back bigger and meaner. One of them ate my boot," Jason said lifting his boot to show Tim the damage.

Tim glanced down and saw Jason did, indeed, only have one boot and the ankle of his jeans looked slightly chewed. His sock looked a little frayed too, like some of the strands of fabric got caught in something and tore open in weird uneven patterns.

"Yikes," Tim said, eyeing Jasons’ feet.

"Yikes is right," Jason grumbled. "I had to shoot the stupid thing like eight times before it stopped gnawing on my leg."

"What has Poison Ivy done to inspire your wrath, anyway?" Tim asked, conversationally as he took another sip of beer.

"She's getting a little fast and loose with her territory. Letting her Jason-Eating-Plants creep out of the park and into my neck of the woods. I got two kids in my building who got their dogs eaten by the damn things just this month."

"Oh, wow. Those are some hungry plants. Are you sure it’s the plants that are eating the dogs?"

“What else would it be?”

“I don’t know… It’s Gotham City, man. Could be anything.”

Jason shrugged. 

“It seems like a little too much of a coincidence that the garden got huge and suddenly and the dogs go missing…”

“Fair. Did you decide how you want to handle it?”

"I sure as shit did," Jason said around a mouthful of sandwich. "Anyway, I went to her and said to control her plants or I'd have to take care of them."

"Oh, I bet that went over real well," Tim said grimly.

"She had a rose bush try to throttle me," Jason replied angrily. "I had to run for my life with these angry toothy tulips hot on my heels."

Tim tried to hide a huff of a laugh in his beer but didn't quite seem to manage given the glare Jason shot him.

"So, then came the flame thrower?" Tim asked, still trying not to smile.

"I mean, there were a few steps in between, but yeah. Then the flame thrower."

"And now the plants are back and bigger than ever?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, hungrier too. It's not great,” 

"Well, on the positive side, you can bet the rat problem in your neck of the woods has probably improved tremendously."

"Good point. We're probably the only neighborhood in Gotham who can say that," Jason said, laughing around a mouthful of french fries.

"Be careful, your landlord might jack up your rent," Tim teased.

"That slumlord doesn’t need an excuse to jack up my rent, man," Jason groaned.

“They rarely do…”

Jason stopped eating for a long moment and looked thoughtful.

“Honestly, I don’t really care about the size of the thing, it’s just that I'm starting to worry the plants are gonna start going after small children next, which is something I really want to avoid."

"Have you tried talking to Poison Ivy civilly? About the pets getting eaten I mean?"

"Not in so many words. I mostly just said her garden was getting out of control and she needed to get her house in order or I'd do it for her."

Tim hummed thoughtfully as he chewed a mouthful of sandwich.

"You think that was the wrong move?" Jason asked, putting down his food and reaching for his beer.

"She's usually pretty empathetic when it comes to kids and defenseless animals. So long as those dogs weren't peeing in her flower beds, I bet she'd be more willing than you think to tone it down with the man-eating vegetation."

"You think so?" Jason asked.

"I mean, not for you anymore. You, she's gonna feed to a ficus at first sight. I can try to stop by tomorrow and talk her through your concerns."

Jason breathed a laugh out of his nose.

"If you say so, little brother. But don't expect me to save your boots when the plants come nibbling at your toes," Jason said. "In the meantime: we drink. I want to blank the memory of the abject fear that flashed through me when I felt those fucking bitey tulips graze my sack with their vicious little teeth."

Jason held up his beer, toasted it to Tim's and then gestured for them both to chug the rest of their cans. Tim downed the rest of his beer along with Jason before reaching for more fries.

"Noted," Tim said and smiled. "It's kinda nice to be going toe to toe with a known quantity like Poison Ivy.”

"Yeah, still struggling with that fire meta dude in Metropolis?" Jason asked, finishing up his sandwich.

He balled up the paper it came in and tossed it in Tim's trash can.

"Yeah, I spent all day researching fire metas but their powers are all pretty unique so I’m not sure how much that will help us in the long run. Peej is working on a way to potentially neutralize the guy’s abilities. In the meantime I have Kon tagging along trying to play detective..."

"Oooooh, 'trying to play detective' that's a little harsh. Trouble in paradise? I thought you two were having fun," Jason teased, rinsing his plate and putting it in Tim's dishwasher.

Jason walked over to Tim's fridge and grabbed two more cans of beer. Popping them both, he slid one to Tim and took a long pull on his fresh can.

"You weren't kidding about drinking to forget," Tim teased.

"I never want any animated toothy plants that close to my junk ever again," Jason said fervently. "And don't try to change the subject. You were excited to be working with Kon again just the other day. What happened?"

Tim sighed and shook his head before reaching for his own beer.

"I don't really want to get into it," Tim said, pushing the rest of his sandwich to one side.

"What? Did he kiss you or something?" Jason asked, leaning back on his heels and watching Tim.

"Jesus, sometimes I forget you're actually an insightful human being," Tim groaned, moving toward the sink to clear his own plate.

"What's that supposed to mean? I'm the smartest guy you know, remember?" Jason said indignantly. "Besides, I’ve been spewing gems all night."

"Gems?" Tim asked Jason, raising an eyebrow at his brother.

"Don't let toothy little tulips bite your balls. That's the kind of sound advice you're just not gonna get from a Dick or a Bruce, little brother."

"That's actually probably true. I don't think I've ever even heard Bruce use the word 'balls' in that context before..."

"Yeah, he'd be all 'Be very cautious, Timothy. Those tulips seem to be trying to target your weak areas. Specifically your scrotum.'" Jason joked, deepening his voice to mock Bruce.

"Nah, he'd absolutely use the Latin word for tulip," Tim put in.

"Oh yeah, he for sure learned that from Alfred."

"Absolutely."

"See, my point stands. I always have gems. So spill. What happened? He's a bad kisser?"

"He didn't kiss me," Tim said, leaning against the counter in his kitchen sipping at his beer.

"But he...?" Jason prompted.

"He, apparently forgetting I'm not a fourteen year old girl, told me I was beautiful."

"Jesus, that's cute as shit." Jason said, as he lifted a hand to his face, covering his mouth as he grinned widely at Tim. "Did you kiss him then?"

"No!" Tim protested.

"Why the fuck not? That was, I repeat, cute as shit."

"I'm not going to just kiss him!"

"Again, why not?"

"Because I--" Tim started and broke off.

"Because-- despite your several academic degrees, successful business and time as the protege of the World's Greatest Detective-- you are, actually, a fucking moron?"

Tim opened his mouth to deny what Jason said, but found himself tilting his head to one side and really just nodded along with it.

"Maybe?" Tim said, his voice higher than he meant it. "I just... It seems like a bad idea."

"Why?"

"I'm really bad at things like this."

"You're bad at stuff like this because… Why? "

"I mean, I’m really bad at that stuff. I manage to fuck up every relationship…”

“Every relationship?”

“Yeah, look what happened with Steph and--”

"Steph. You mean the girl who helped you buy a house and picked out your curtains? The girl you’re supposed to have Brunch with this Sunday? Oh yeah, Timbo. Sounds like you really fucked that one up,” Jason said sarcastically. “Obviously the girl you share a Netflix password with will never fucking forgive you…”

"I hate you. Shut up.”

"Jesus,” Jason said, leaning over the bar to look into Tim’s face.”I hate to be the one to lay this deep and unholy truth on you, little brother, but everyone is really bad at this shit--"

"Oh, that's promising," Tim said bitterly.

"You didn't let me finish, you little jerk. Everyone is bad at this shit right up until the moment they aren't. Then, they're good at it," Jason said, shrugging expansively and slouching back down so he was flat footed on the floor again, seemingly very pleased with himself.

"What does that even mean?"

"It means no one is sure about anything until they are and no one knows what the fuck is going to happen with any given relationship until they do. And you won't ever know that until you kiss the shit out of Kon when he does cute things like call you beautiful."

"I think we're, yet again, glossing over the fact that I'm not a fourteen year old girl..."

"Oh shut up. He's saying it because he means it. It's not a line. That guy has known you long enough to know a line wasn't going to work on you. He said it because he felt it and, unlike you, me and the rest of our nutso family, the guy is actually honest about his feelings. Maybe you should lean into that a little bit."

"You know... Suddenly, I think I might be on the same page as you on the drinking to forget thing..."

"That's the spirit!" Jason said, happily. "See, I told you I was the smartest guy you knew."

"Yes. Wow, Jason. How did I never see it before today?" Tim replied in a teasing, almost robotic tone of voice.

Jason tossed his now empty beer can at Tim's head and headed to the fridge for another one.

“Because, as we established earlier, you’re an idiot.”

“I--” Tim started, then broke off and shook his head, not quite able to look at Jason just then.

Tim could feel Jason watching him from across the kitchen. He racked his brains trying to come up with something to say to change the subject, to move them past this and on to--

Something else…

“You’re not actually an idiot,” Jason said in an even tone of voice. “I don’t need to tell you that, right?”

Tim took a deep breath and tilted his head back to look at the ceiling.

“Sometimes I just--” Tim started and broke off again, not sure how to finish the thought.

Jason looked at Tim expentantly.

“Kon said he was sure," Tim said, breathing out as he spoke.

"What?"

"He said he was sure. About how he felt about me. That he was sure how he felt and that he had always been sure about how he felt."

"Yeah, I mean, he's had a while to think about it, Timmers..."

"How can he be sure?" Tim asked, hearing the desperation he felt clear in his voice. "How can he be sure how he feels and what he wants and what he's doing? I don't feel sure about any of it. I thought I was sure. I thought I was sure about China and this whole stupid business I built, and look how that turned out..."

"Yeah, I can see how that might trip you up, but--"

"But nothing! I wasn't even sure about moving back here. All I knew was that I couldn’t stand to stay in China any more. So I just...”

"You made a choice." Jason said firmly.

"I reverted toward the fucking mean!" Tim exclaimed. "I didn't know what to do so I ran home to daddy..."

"You've seen Bruce for only long enough to piss him off, little brother. That’s not running home to daddy."

"I came home, though. That's not exactly the move of a confident adult who has his shit figured out."

"Who the fuck do you know that is a confident adult who has his shit figured out? Does that person even exist?"

"Yes! And his name is Kon-El! He's always been so confident about what he wanted. He wanted to be as good as Superman and he did it. He wanted a job that helped people, and he did it. He wanted to live in Metropolis to be close to Clark and Lois and Jon, and he did it..."

"I mean, yeah. But you did all those things too. Some of them with a lot less support than Kon did. Have you ever thought that maybe the reason Kon is so sure about himself is because he's had awesome supportive friends who always reinforce his positive decisions. Friends he goes to for advice and help. Who do you go to for advice?"

"You, apparently," Tim said bitterly.

"The fuck you do. I have to pry everything out of you with my friendly brotherly interrogations and then I give you my inexpert and unsolicited opinion while calling you names and mocking you at every turn."

"Yeah, but you're my brother. That's your job."

"I mean, yes. For sure. But let me tell you, it's fine that you're not sure. It's ok that you don't know for sure that you want to be Gotham or that you want to keep your business or anything. You're pretty smart. You can figure out whatever you want if you just focus on it for, like, twenty minutes..."

Tim sighed and shook his head.

"Here's the thing they don't tell you about existing in the universe, Timmers. The whole ordeal is riddled with bullshit and uncertainty. You just do your best and hope it all works out."

"You are just full of awe inspiring gems tonight, aren't you?"

"I'm just saying it's fine that you don't have your shit figured out. It's fine that Kon does. And maybe you should lean on Kon a little more. The type of stability he has can be contagious."

“I can’t believe you managed to make even that reasonable piece of advice sound a little gross.”

“Shut up,” Jason said cheerfully. “Listen, you have a guy knocking down your door, handing you a fun new arson case to play with, telling you that you’re beautiful and making sure his dog is compatible with the random cat Damian inflicted on you. Just because you don’t have your shit figured out doesn’t mean you can’t lean into this. I think you should go with it.”

“Ok,” Tim said, sighing. “But what about...”

Jason took a deep breath and twisted his mouth into a grimace before shaking his head at Tim.

“You need to stop fixating on everything you’re afraid will go wrong and maybe start fixating on what could go right with Kon.”

“Life according to Jason Todd: Relationship Guru,” Tim intoned philosophically.

“Hey, between the two of us, I’m the only one who has gotten laid in the past six weeks. So I like to think I have a bit more authority here.”

“God, that is a depressingly fair assessment.”

“Damn right. Smartest guy you know, remember?”

“Point conceded.”

“So what’s your next move?”

“I have no idea. But every time I talk to him it’s kinda awkward. Not looking forward to that continuing.”

“You’re a Robin. Awkward is our collective middle name. Again: Lean into it.”

Tim couldn’t help but think that might be decent advice. Afterall, he didn’t have many other options.

"I think I need another beer," Tim said, sighing.

"Damn right you do.”

^*^*^*^*^*^*^

By the time the day was over, Kon would have cheerfully thrown his Battalion Chief off a cliff. He kept giving Kon more and more assignments around the station. A day that should have ended at 4:30 dragged on until at least six.

It wasn't until his Chief went home himself that Kon finally got a reprieve.

He was grabbing his coat from the cloak room when Andy came in after him.

"What did you do to the Chief to get him so pissed at you?" she asked. 

"I have no freaking clue," Kon groaned. "If you hear anything in the rumor mill, let me know. The last thing I need is to have him riding my ass on top of everything else."

"What's 'everything else'?" Andy asked, curiously, zipping up her jacket.

"Eh, I don't want to get into it," Kon heged.

"Ooooooh, let me guess. Lady troubles?" Andy teased.

"Umm, not so much 'lady' troubles as..."

"As?" Andy prompted.

"What's the male equivalent of lady?" Kon asked as they walked out of the station and toward Andy's car.

"There… isn’t?”

"I'm hung up on this guy who is just a little hard to read sometimes..." Kon said.

"A guy? That's new,"

"It's so far from new that it's a little absurd," Kon sighed.

"An ex?"

"Nope, a friend who I've had a thing for since like, the minute we both hit puberty. I thought maybe this time I had a shot. That maybe the timing was finally right for both of us, but..."

"He was not receptive."

"He was not."

"Poor dumb fuck," Andy said. "He obviously doesn’t know what he's turning down."

"I mean, we've been friends forever, so he knows exactly what he's turning down. Which kinda makes it worse..."

"Maybe you just caught him on an off-week..." Andy offered.

"Yeah but, I feel like his whole life is comprised of consecutive off-weeks..." Kon said bitterly. “He’s that kind of guy.”

"So maybe he's just not down for any fooling around with your friend related drama," Andy said.

"That... maybe that's it. Or maybe I’m a fucking idiot who should catch a clue..." Kon said bitterly.

"I have every confidence you can talk him around. Why have the job if you don't get to play up the big gay fireman trope?"

Kon couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Maybe try talking to him again. If you've been friends for that long, he's at least going to give you the chance to talk it through."

"You might have a point there."

"Of course I do," Andy said. She gave Kon a comforting pat on the shoulder, tossed him an airy wave and got into her car.

As she motored off, Kon considered what she had said. Talking to Tim was probably a good idea. Things had been awkward between the two of them before. Duking it out always seemed to help. Even when it pissed Tim off.

Kon stepped into an alley and kicked off into the sky. It only took him a few minutes to get to Gotham City. He touched down a few blocks from Tim's house. He was just walking up the sidewalk to Tim's brownstone when he saw Tim's brother Jason coming down the stairs.

When Jason caught sight of Kon a huge smile spread out across his face. He clapped Jason on the shoulder as he walked past.

"You are gonna owe me like a million favors," Jason said almost giddily, grinning at him widely.

"Are you drunk right now?" Kon asked.

"I mean, not a drunk as I could be and probably not as drunk as Tim is…”

“Why are you only wearing one shoe?” Kon couldn’t help ask.

Jason just laughed and waved happily at Kon before continuing down the sidewalk. 

“Have fun!" he called over his shoulder.

Kon watched as Jason climbed into a Lyft and took off down the road.

Looking with some grim caution at Tim's front door. Kon took the stairs up to the brownstone two at a time. Jason had left the door unlocked behind him. Kon knocked on it lightly.

"Come in!" Kon heard Tim call distently. "Jeeze, why are you even knocking. It's open."

Kon let himself inside. He followed the sound of Tim's voice back into the kitchen.

He found Tim eating french fries and nursing a beer at his kitchen counter.

"Hey man," Kon said tentatively.

"Oh shit, I thought you were Jason," Tim said, swallowing french fries. "What are you doing here?"

"Ummm, I came to see if you heard anything from Peej?" Kon lied, walking over to Tim. "What kind of beer do you have?"

"The kind Jason picks out?" Tim said, unsure. "There's a few more in the fridge. Help yourself."

Kon dug in the fridge for a beer of his own.

"Jason said you were drunk."

"Jason's an asshole," Tim said, but his voice sounded almost fond.

"I mean, yeah. But is he wrong?" Kon asked.

Tim grimaced.

"That's the worst thing about Jason. He is rarely wrong."

"Except when he murders people," Kon corrected.

"I mean, he hasn't done that in years," Tim said. "And when he does, it's often provoked. And no, I’m not as drunk as Jason seems to think. I’m mostly just a little buzzed."

Kon shook his head and popped his beer open. He reached for a few fries and grimaced when he put them into his mouth.

"You're eating cold french fries?"

Tim shrugged. 

"They were warm at one point."

"Also, if you wanted to know if I heard from Peej, you could have texted..."

Kon hesitated, bought himself some time by taking a long pull off his beer.

"I could have..." Kon finally said after he swallowed.

"But you didn't actually want to talk about Peej," Tim corrected. "And you know that if you mentioned the thing that you did actually want to talk about, I'd tell you I was busy and you shouldn't come over."

"Are we playing the radical honesty game?" Kon joked lamely. “I never seem to win that game…”

"I mean, no one ever wins that game. But at this point, we might as well play," Tim said bitterly. "It's not like we can pretend none of this happening."

Kon hummed skeptically.

"You have tried that move on me before," Kon pointed out.

Tim huffed out a bitter laugh.

"It's true. I have. But that sort of denial and self deception hasn't actually served me well. I think I may actually take that idiot’s advice."

"Oh?" Kon asked. "What's that?"

"I'm gonna lean into it."

"Lean into what?"

"Whatever the hell it is that we're doing."

"I'm actually a little unclear as to what we are doing right now, Tim." Kon said, watching Tim's face carefully.

"I'm going to lean in to not having a plan, not having an answer, not having a next move. I'm going to lean into dealing with the now, trying to prep for what I can, and I'm going to try to not get too bogged down in what comes next."

"Sorry, wait. You, Timothy Jackson Drake: Master Planner Extraordinaire, are saying you're going to just go with the flow."

Tim grimaced and smiled wryly at Kon.

"It sounded much cooler when I said it," Tim said.

Kon couldn't help but smile back.

"It really did sound cooler when you said it," Kon conceded. "But then, everything sounds cooler when you say it."

Tim laughed and walked over to where Kon was standing. He leaned over and smiled at Kon.

Tim was so close Kon could smell him. Tim smelled like soap, and french fries and dark malty beer. He smelled like body armor and hand lotion and just exactly like Tim had always smelled.

Seeing him smile made Kon's stomach go warm and he couldn't help but smile back.

“So we’re good?” Kon asked. “You’re not going to have me killed in my sleep?”

“I mean, I can’t promise I won’t ever do that…” Tim hedged.

Kon laughed and pulled a relaxed feeling Tim into his arms.

“Never change, Wonder Boy,” Kon said.

Tim hesitated for a long moment before wrapping his arms around Kon and hugging him back. 

“I think the upshot of all of that was that I kinda need to change.”

“Yeah, but like not too much. If you stopped deeply unnerving me altogether, I might get complacent.”

“Oh, we can’t possibly have that. Don’t worry. I’m sure when you finally find all the cameras I’ve hidden in your home you’ll be unnerved enough to last awhile.”

“I can’t tell if you’re joking…”

“I know. Kinda the point.”

Kon laughed and just held Tim for a little while longer, thinking wryly that Tim was absolutely right about one thing. Jason was always right.

And Kon did owe him a million favors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Half way there! Four chapters left to post, my dudes. Enjoy ~<3


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim deeply regrets ever even considering helping his brother. Kon saves a puppy dog. Tim needs some first aid and Kon really wants some kisses.

Tim was starting to deeply regret ever offering to help Jason with his little plant problem. Dusk was just falling by the time they made their way to the park where Poison Ivy was holed up. The whole area looked like an overgrown morass of blunt shadows and sharp, dark edges.

Tim gave Jason a dirty look as Jason eyed the area, looking for a spot in the greenery where the underbrush wasn’t as thick so they could push into the park. He didn’t really find one so they just picked a spot and tried to make their way past the wall of vegetation. The foliage around the park was so thick and overgrown that Tim and Jason had to climb over vines, tree branches and shrubs just to get to the area that was formerly a swing set.

"How deep in the park did you say she was?" Tim asked grumpily, untangling a particularly friendly vine from around his ankle.

Tim had not slept well the night before. After Kon had left, Tim went down to his basement to try and set up what equipment he had for his lab, feeling restless and off balance. It was one thing to decide to live a totally different life, it was a totally different thing to actually live that life. 

The more Tim thought about it, the more anxious and uncertain he felt. He tinkered around downstairs until his eyes were so tired that he finally made himself go upstairs and try to sleep. His bed was uncomfortable and he tossed and turned for hours before he finally fell into a fitful sleep. He woke up feeling almost as tired as he felt before he went to bed. 

He distracted himself the rest of the day with research, work, petting Auguste and helping Jason prep for the run in with Poison Ivy. 

"When I last saw her she was about a quarter mile in," Jason answered, eyeing a bunch of flowers in a way that made it clear he was having a hard time deciding if he wanted to give them a very wide berth or set them on fire.

"Jesus," Tim hissed, dodging a swinging tree branch and shaking flower petals out of his hair.

"On the plus side, the plants a lot more chill today," Jason said, grabbing a vine before it wrapped around Tim's bicep. Jason gave it a glare, shook it once and then tossed it away. The vine retreated back into the underbrush and Tim gave Jason a wry smile. “The last time I was here they kept trying to eat me on sight.

"Maybe if we walk faster, look like we have a purpose, they'll leave us alone?" Tim ventured.

"Worth a shot..."

The two of them picked up the pace, jumping over vines and flower beds as they ventured through to the center of the park. They never actually made it all the way to Poison Ivy's hideout, she intercepted them as they were trying to twist away from a large rhododendron.

"Little bird, you are keeping unpleasant company," she singsonged, eyeing Jason in disgust.

Poison Ivy had melted out of the foliage so quietly that Tim hadn’t noticed her at first. She had materialized about fifteen feet away from the two of them. She stood hipshot with one hand playing at a flower she tucked into her hair and the other petting at the rhododendron that was trying to twist its way around Tim and Jason's legs. She looked very annoyed and deeply unhappy to see them. 

"I am well aware," Tim said, giving up on trying to get away from the plant. Instead he locked eyes with Poison Ivy and tilted his head wryly. "Unfortunately, he's family so... I've been told that I’m stuck with him."

"Tragic," she bit out shortly, still looking at Jason with distaste as a small morning glory flower wrapped it’s way affectionately around her ankle.

The rhododendron, taking advantage of Tim's docility, wrapped roots and branches tightly around Tim and Jason's wrists and ankles. It had them firmly restrained and Tim decided that it was probably best to stop resisting altogether. Jason seemed to get the same idea as he stilled next to Tim.

"You have no idea. For my birthday, he got me a gift card to his favorite pizza shop. I wasn’t even living in the same country as him or the pizza shop at the time.”

"Hey! You got me a ditty bag with soap and a toothbrush! I do bathe you know!"

"Of course I did! I don't want you leaving a toothbrush at my place all the time."

"Why not?! It's not like you got anyone sleeping over that the spare toothbrush could scare off."

"You don't know--"

Poison Ivy's mouth twitched at the corner, as if she was trying not to smile.

"Alright boys," she said. "What do you want?"

They both turned their focus back to Ivy.

"We think your plants are eating the neighborhood pets," Tim said. "Mostly dogs but some cats too."

"Strays?"

"Not all of them," Jason cut in grimly.

Poison Ivy let out a little breath of air and shook her head.

"I thought it was just the rats..." she mused aloud.

"It's the dogs, too. We're getting a little worried they may move on to... bigger things," Tim ventured.

Poison Ivy looked up at them sharply, locking eyes with Jason for a short moment before taking a deep breath and crossing her arms over her chest. 

"I'll take care of it," she said shortly.

"Listen I just need to know--" Jason started in, but Tim cut him off with a look.

"Thanks," Tim said, over Jason. "We just want to know the kids and puppies in the neighborhood are safe."

"They're safe," Poison Ivy confirmed. "Is that why he burned down my plants? He was worried about the puppies?"

"And the cats," Tim said. "He likes cats."

"Jesus, don't start rumors or I'll end up with a stray like you," Jason bit out and shook his head.

"You have a stray cat?" Poison Ivy asked Tim, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

"His name is Auguste," Tim said primly. "He likes naps and sleeping on my belly."

"You need a girlfriend," she said, grinning at them both.

"Or boyfriend. I've been saying the same thing--" Jason agreed, but Tim cut him off.

"The last thing I need is a girlfriend or a boyfriend," Tim said. "I wouldn’t have the spare time I need to nap properly with Auguste."

Ivy turned away from Tim to look at Jason, a smile still on her lips

"If I let you leave here alive, will you help him find a date?"

"I've been trying... He's impossible. He's got this one guy throwing himself at him and here's here, helping me talk to you, instead of making out with him."

"Oh, no. No, sweetie," Poison Ivy said with faux horror in her voice. At a wave of her hand the bush let both Tim and Jason go. "Go! Leave! I'll deal with the plants and the strays. You go save your tragic love life."

"Hey!" Tim started but she waved a hand at him, gesturing for him to leave.

Jason was laughing as he grabbed Tim's arm and led him out of the park and back toward Jason's neighborhood.

They could hear Poison Ivy talking her plants and watched as the foliage reduced in size and scattered away from them as they walked back toward the street.

"Hey, it looks like it's working," Jason said, watching the plants move and retreat.

"I told you all you had to do was ask. She's a reasonable person," Tim said as the two of them made their way back onto the sidewalk and into the dim sunlight.

"With a sense of humor too," Jason said, grinning.

Jason's phone buzzed before Tim could respond. He fished the phone from his pocket and skimmed the read out.

"It's Artemis," Jason said. "I gotta go. Call me later?"

"Yeah, go. Tell her I said 'hi.'"

"Yeah, ok," Jason said distractedly as he took off down the street toward where he parked his bike.

Tim took a deep breath and shook his head.

Just as Tim was about to head off toward his motorcycle he heard a loud twisting snap. Looking back behind him, he saw two of Poison Ivy's larger tree creatures locked in a fight. As they retreated per her instructions, they clearly began encroaching on each other's territory. They began to fight for territory. Large branches shot through the air, splintering as they crashed together. Thick, heavy roots tore up the grass and sidewalk under Tim's feet. The root system was thick and Tim was caught up in it as the roots lifted up into the air to battle.

Twisting and diving, moving as quickly as he could, Tim tried to extract himself from the tangle of roots and sod and brush. Another branch splintered above him and sharp shards of wood shot out and dug deeply into Tim's cheek and the side of his neck, his mask the only thing saving his eyes.

Tim scrambled forward and leapt off the side of the root system. A root shot out and hit him in the ribs, knocking him off course and throwing off his balance enough that he couldn't properly break his fall. Tim hit the ground hard with one shoulder, tumbling in all the wrong ways onto the broken sidewalk below.

Dazed, ears ringing and dizzy around the eyes, Tim dimly heard Poison Ivy shouting at the trees and they settled back down to earth, rerooting and settling back into place in the park.

Tim wasted no time, he took off back away from the park as quickly as he could, trying to get away from any other potential plant turf wars. His shoulder ached, his head hurt and Tim was pretty sure he had about an hour of pulling splinters out ahead of him.

Tim found his bike and rushed home. He tossed his now filthy uniform into the laundry basket in his basement base before limping back upstairs. He was just about to head to his bedroom and his first aid kit when his phone rang.

Tim didn't recognize the number but he thumbed the call live in case it was a new client.

"This is Tim," Tim said, his voice sounding a little more hoarse than he would have liked.

"Mr. Drake. This is Lyle with Swifty Furniture."

"Oh yeah," Tim said. "Delivery time is still nine am tomorrow, right?"

"I'm sorry Mr. Drake but we're running a bit behind schedule. We won't be able to deliver the rest of your furniture for another seven to ten days."

"Seven to-- What? Are you kidding?" Tim said, eyeing his nearly empty living room.

"Yes, Mr. Drake. Our apologies. I'll call you at a later date to set up a time for delivery. Thank you, have a good day."

The man hung up before Tim could reply or object. Tim just stared at his phone, feeling a little shocked, and shook his head in disgust.

"Well shit," Tim said, his voice echoing against the empty wall of his now cavernous seeming living room. The space was empty aside from several large towers of unpacked boxes. 

It was... a depressing sight.

Tim's house was a tangled mess of half emptied boxes. Aside from a few mismatched chairs in his kitchen and a simple metal bed frame in his bedroom, Tim didn’t have any furniture. He had no pictures on the walls, no carpets on the floors and no curtains in the windows.

The house suddenly looked... very big.

And very empty.

And very lonely.

Sighing, Tim shook his head and made his way up the stairs to the second floor. He grabbed a towel from the closet and made his way into his bathroom and his first aid kid. Tim pulled out the kit and grabbed a few tweezers. As he tweezed a few splinters out of the side of his neck, Tim wondered idly if Poison Ivy was maybe right about him needing a boyfriend.

^*^*^*^*^*^

The sky was just turning pink and purple as dusk began to fall over Metropolis. Kon was flying low over the city, the dew starting to settle down over the city dampening Kon's t-shirt. The night was cool and the breeze was light and airy as it blew through Kon's hair. He closed his eyes and breathed in deep, smelling the salt of the ocean coming up off the bay.

Kon was trying to focus on his patrol that night, he really was. He had spent his entire shift at the fire station distracted. His Battalion Chief had chewed him out for not focusing and even Andy asked him how much sleep he got the night before. He had assured them both he was totally focused and on task, but he would be lying if he said he hadn't rushed home as soon as he could.

He had taken Krypto on a perfunctory walk, ate a quick peanut butter sandwich and then slipped out of his fire escape. Kicking off from his fire escape, Kon had given himself ten minutes of intense fly time up through the clouds before making himself come back to earth, so to speak, to start patrol.

Between putting out literal fires, working with Tim to track down their arsonist, and dodging calls from Maggie, Kon hadn't had much time to just get out and patrol Metropolis for over a week. It felt a little nice to settle back into his usual routine.

Kon was half way through his usual route, keeping an idle eye out for crime and trying hard to focus up.

It wasn't easy.

Kon couldn't help but think back to his conversation with Tim from the night before.

Kon would be the first to admit that he had no idea what "going with the flow" meant for someone like Tim. Kon knew how to do it himself, but he wasn't sure how someone as high strung and well organized as Tim was going to pull that off.

Different scenarios had been playing through Kon's head all day. He imagined Tim throwing caution to the wind, leaping into Kon's arms and kissing him. He imagined Tim deciding that Gotham wasn't the right fit for him after all and heading off to fight crime in Brazil instead. He imagined Tim deciding that maybe it was just Kon that wasn't right for him and starting up a torrid affair with that cute detective on the GCPD Tim texted with sometimes.

The more scenarios Kon thought up, the fewer of them he liked. What he wanted to do was fly back to Gotham City and ask Tim what he meant about "going with the flow" but...

It really did seem like interrogating Tim about the concept and making him come up with answers seemed antithetical to the whole premise, frankly.

But that didn't mean Kon couldn't obsess over what it could all mean.

Kon was just considering texting Tim and seeing if he was up for another beer when he heard a low whimpering woof out off in the direction of the garment district.

Kon took off in the direction of the sound, listening out for more low woofs and whines. It took Kon less than ten minutes before he found the source of the whimpers. An old mutt was backed into an alley, a large, wide tin can was stuck over his head. He was whimpering and woofing as he shook his head from side to side and pawed at the can, trying to get it off.

Kon landed on the ground next to the dog and reached out a tentative hand.

"Hey there boy, easy now," Kon said, talking to the stray in a low soothing tone of voice. "I'm here to help."

With a few more coaxing words and a promise of a few treats, Kon got the dog to settle enough to pull the can off over the dog's head. It came off with little resistance and Kon dropped a couple of Krypto's treats on the ground for the dog.

"See, that wasn't so bad, now was it?" Kon asked. The dog didn't answer, just lapped up the treats as quickly as he could.

Kon kept handing the dog treats one by one as he quickly googled for the location of the nearest animal shelter. He was trying to decide how upset the dog would be if he flew him the three miles to the nearest shelter when the dog lifted his head and scented the air.

The stray let out a low groan and took off down the alleyway, out to the street. Kon watched the dog go as he sniffed the air, catching the unmistakable scent of smoke just a few blocks away.

Deciding the fire took priority over the stray dog, Kon took off in the direction of the smell of the smoke. It took Kon less than a minute to pinpoint exactly where the smell was coming from. It was seeping slowly out of a broken window in a garment factory that had been shuttered since before Kon had been decanted.

Kon found another fully broken window on the third floor and flew inside. Making his way through the building, Kon tried to find the source of the smoke. It wasn't heavy yet, just thin wisps trailing up into the air in the building.

It took Kon a few minutes to make his way to the bottom floor of the factory. The glint of flames caught his eyes as he made his way down a corridor and into a large open floor place that housed dozens of old machines.

The fire was bright but small. It was flicking white and blue, the flames far hotter than they should be with only a few old rags as fuel. As Kon looked frantically around for more fuel sources that could potentially ignite, he spotted a darkly clothed figure.

The guy was slender, wearing a navy blue jacket with a deep hood pulled up over his head and a pair of khakis with some dark colored running shoes. He hadn't spotted Kon yet and he was gesturing strangely with his hands. As one hand lifted the flames rose, as it fell the flames dampened. It was clear he was controlling the fire.

Kon had just found their firebug.

"Hey," Kon called out to the kid. "Be careful!"

The kid looked up at him, fear in his face. He turned on his heel and took off at a run, sprinting towards the nearest exit. Kon started after him, but the minute the kid stopped controlling the fire, it combusted. The flames shooting up and blasting out toward the old machinery.

Kon swore, taking a split second to decide that putting out the fire was more important than catching the kid, just then. Pushing off at a high speed, Kon rushed out of the building. Finding the nearest dumpster, Kon emptied it before kicking open a fire hydrant. Water spouted up, shooting a couple of feet in the air and Kon caught as much as he could in the dumpster. He let it fill for a few moments before rushing back into the building and starting to pour it over the flames.

It took almost thirty minutes and about twenty-five dumpsters full of water to put out all of the flames. When Kon was convinced that the fire was under control, Kon called a tip into 911, asking for a fire crew to check in on the site of the fire and keep an eye out for hot spots he may have missed.

Fortunately, the garment district was just outside of Kon's own Battalion's territory and Metro 23 were on the scene within ten minutes of Kon's call. He waited for them to set up and start looking over the scene before he gave them an airy wave and took back off into the sky.

Kon was drenched from fire hydrant/dumpster water, which produced a smell Kon suspected was not yet known to man. He shook the damp out of his hair as he flew in a grid pattern, looking for his hoodie clad fire starter.

After two hours of searching, Kon couldn't find the guy. He did, however, manage to locate the stray dog he had helped earlier. He dropped the stray off at a shelter in West Metropolis was weighed the pros and cons of starting his search off again.

Shaking his head, Kon decided that maybe getting in touch with Tim and giving him an update on another fire and what he had seen that night was probably the better part of valor.

Kon headed home, Krypto was initially excited to see Kon, until he caught the smell of him. Then Krypto whimpered and hid under the bed.

"Thanks a lot, bud," Kon said to him, wryly.

Knowing how to take a hint, Kon shucked his clothes and threw them into the washing machine. He started a load of laundry before heading in to take a quick shower. He washed his hair about four times, and probably would have scrubbed off a layer or two of skin if he hadn't had his TTK, before he felt like maybe he was human again.

Throwing on another set of clothes, Kon called Tim, hoping he wasn't out on patrol.

Tim picked up on the third ring.

"Yeah?"

"You home?" Kon asked.

"Yeah, I am."

"Need to talk to you about something I saw in Metropolis tonight. Related to the case. Can I swing by?"

"Door's unlocked. I'll be upstairs. Don't let Auguste out when you come in."

"You got it."

They both hung up and Kon slipped out his window and back up into the sky.

The flight to Gotham was chilly but fortunately the temperature was past the dew point now so Kon didn't need to worry about getting damp again. It took him less than fifteen minutes to get to Tim's neighborhood. Kon touched down a few blocks away from Tim's place and walked the rest of the way.

Kon let himself into Tim's house, pushing open the door to an excitedly meowing Auguste. Crouching, Kon rubbed at Auguste's ears and chin.

"Hey buddy, how was your day? Is your roomie upstairs?" Kon asked Auguste.

Auguste let out a low burrp and took off towards the stairs. Kon followed Auguste as he made his way to the second floor of Tim's house and into Tim's bedroom.

"Tim?" Kon called, following the dim light trailing out from a crack in a door toward the back of Tim's bedroom.

"Yeah, I'm in here," Tim called, and pushed the door open the rest of the way.

Tim was standing in his bathroom wearing only a pair of boxers. A light blue towel was draped over one of his shoulders. It was dappled with spots of blood and iodine.

Kon frowned as he pushed his way into the bathroom.

"What happened to you?"

"I thought I would help Jason with a thing..." Tim said and then broke off with an expansive shrug that ended in a wince.

A large bruise was just starting to purple out from Tim's shoulder. It looked deep and painful.

"Jeeze, I guess that thing didn't end well, huh?"

"I mean, it ended ok for us, but then a couple of angry trees started fighting over some territory and I got caught in the crossfire so to speak."

"Angry... Trees?"

"It's been a day."

"I bet."

Kon watched as Tim leaned over his sink in a way that looked like it was probably painful. He was picking at something in his neck with a tweezers and Kon winced as Tim twisted his heavily bruised shoulder in a way that had to hurt.

"Here," Kon said, taking the tweezer out of Tim's hand and pushing him down to sit on the side of his bathtub. "Let me help. Are these splinters?"

"Yeah, about a bazillion of them. I've been trying to dig them out all night."

Kon kneeled down on the floor of Tim's bathroom, rocking up to examine the cuts and bruises Tim had collected that day

"Wow, sounds like you had almost as much fun tonight as I did," Kon said grimly. "I guess going with the flow didn't work out quite the way you wanted, huh?"

"Actually," Tim drawled. "This was a plan. A plan I thought out. A plan I thought out and felt confident about..."

"Ohhhhh, wow..."

There were about six more splinters in Tim's neck. They were scattered around some cuts that looked like they had also once held splinters too. Kon shook his head and worked on pulling the rest of splinters out of Tim's skin.

"Yeah, not ideal..." Tim said, wincing as Kon pulled out some antiseptic and started to disinfect and clean his wounds.

"So what about you? What went down in your neck of the woods tonight."

Kon gave Tim the rundown on what had happened in the garment factory as he finished disinfecting the cuts and applying band-aids where the cuts were deep enough to warrant it.

Tim hummed thoughtfully as Kon went over exactly how the guy got away as Kon put out the fire.

"Yeah, 'not ideal' is the theme of the night," Kon said grimly. "I wanted to call the fire department while I went after the kid, but the fire was so hot that I was worried about how fast it would spread if I didn't get to it right away."

"No, you made the right call," Tim said thoughtfully. "I can use CCTV and security cameras to see if I can spot where he went. Maybe see if we can get some footage of him scoping out the area and starting the fire."

"You think you can find some?"

"Worth a shot. I’m glad you didn't go after him on your own. We have no idea what this guy is capable of, in fact I don't think he knows either. This could give us the information we need to confront him. Especially if I can get footage of him starting and controlling the flames."

"That sounds promising. It didn't feel great to let him go. Especially since we don't know how he'll react from here. I'm just hoping he doesn't start a fire in an inhabited building anytime soon. I'm not sure my conscious could take it," Kon said hopefully, rocking back on his heels as he finished up with Tim's cuts. 

Tim had closed his eyes as Kon was speaking. He was swaying slightly as he sat on the edge of the tub. There were dark circles rimming his eyes and his mouth was pulled into a tired half frown. Under the dark blush of fresh bruises, Tim's skin looked even paler than usual.

He looked like he was exhausted, in pain and just unhappy.

"Hey," Kon said, reaching a hand up to cup Tim's unbruised shoulder. "Maybe you should head to bed?"

Tim didn't even open his eyes as he tilted his head back and groaned.

"Ugh, my bed is shit. I can't wait until my actual bed frame is delivered and I have a comfortable place to sleep again. I barely slept last night."

"When does your furniture get delivered?" Kon asked.

"Don't ask," Tim answered grimly, taking a deep breath and opening his brilliant blue eyes.

"Oh?"

"The delivery has been delayed by seven to ten days," Tim pronounced.

Kon winced and shook his head.

"Yikes, more going with the flow or..."

"Nope! Yet another plan of mine gone seriously awry. Why did I ever even bother trying plans in the first place?"

"I have no answers for you, Timmers," Kon said, shaking his head.

"No one has answers," Tim groaned, getting to his feet and making his way back out to his bedroom.

Tim flicked on the light and paused briefly by the bed to give Auguste a quick pet.

"Remember back when we thought Batman and Superman had the answers?" Tim asked, digging through a box to find a pair of loose sweatpants.

Tugging the pants on, Tim ran a hand through his hair and shook his head.

"What were we thinking?" Kon asked sardonically.

"We were idiots?" Tim ventured.

"So what's next, then?"

"Next I'm going to make myself something to eat and then sleep for at least nine hours. Not that I'm making a plan. Because, again, no plans."

"And for the case?"

"Peej and I are grabbing coffee tomorrow morning. I'll let her know what you said about our guy controlling the fire and see what she has to say. She may have some thoughts."

"Good--"

Tim cut Kon off before he could finish.

"Don't say 'plan!' Just don't say it!" Tim said, talking over Kon. "There are no plans. We no longer plan. We go with the flow and hope for the best."

"What's the best at his point?"

"Decent coffee, no more splinters, no more fires and no animate trees?" Tim ventured.

"I can get behind that," Kon said.

Tim and Auguste walked Kon to the door. The all said their goodbyes and Kon took off down the block as Tim waved goodbye to him from the doorway. After a few more blocks, Kon kicked off into the air.

Kon took off in the direction of Metropolis, flying a bit more slowly than usual. He let the cool night air wash over him as he tried to collect his thoughts.

Tim was probably right. It was better that Kon hadn't confronted the meta on his own, without backup or any idea of how the guy's powers worked. That didn't make Kon feel any less guilty about letting the guy run off.

On top of that, Kon hadn't really wanted to leave Tim that night either. He also felt guilty about Tim being alone in that big empty house when the guy was obviously feeling so rough. Kon wasn't sure what to do, it wasn't clear if Tim wanted space to figure things out on his own, or if he was lonely and wanted company.

Kon couldn’t help but wish that Tim was a little easier to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kon's such a good boy, saving that puppy dog. <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peej and Tim get coffee, Kon helps Tim liberate his furniture, and Tim spends some time thinking about what it is that he wants.
> 
> Quick warning: Here's where things take a turn for the smutty and I earn my E rating.

Peej had purposely picked a coffee shop Tim hadn’t been to before. So he left Gotham City a little earlier than he needed to so he could spend a few extra minutes finding the place if he needed to. The drive into Metropolis that morning had a bit more traffic than Tim had expected and he impatiently looked for parking as he neared the location of the coffee shop. Tim finally found a spot a few blocks away, parked and took off in the direction of the shop. 

Tim had slept a little bit better the night before, but not much. He had been so exhausted that he had fallen asleep quickly, but the pain from his injured shoulder kept jolting him awake so he hadn’t gotten much in the way of REM.

Tim still felt the tired tug of exhaustion at the corners of his eyes. His shoulder was aching this morning, he had accidentally rolled over onto it several times the night before. While the joint hadn’t dislocated when he fell, the muscle tissue was bruised deeply enough that it was painful to use his arm. 

Hoping that some food and caffeine would accomplish what sleep and painkillers couldn’t, Tim picked up his pace to the coffee shop.

When he rounded the corner of the block where it was located, Tim saw a line out the door of the shop. Tim came up to the front a little surprised at the crowd. He looked over the menu, and suddenly realized that this was a new shop that has just opened a few months before. He had read about the place in The Metropolist just a week ago. It supposedly had the best bagels in the city. 

Hence the crowd.

Tim got in line and eyed the menu as he waited for Peej to arrive. He was close to the front of the line when Peej pushed through the door and elbowed her way next to Tim, ignoring the annoyed stares of the people in line behind them. 

“You look like shit!” Peej said cheerfully, leaning down to press a quick kiss to Tim’s cheek. 

She was wearing a neat a dark grey pencil skirt with a matching blazer. Her shirt was a light powder blue and she had a scarf rimmed with light yellow and green butterflies wrapped around her neck. Her hair was slightly wind blown and she was grinning widely at Tim. 

“I feel like shit!” Tim confirmed, kissing her back. 

“What happened?”

The two of them ordered their food and Tim explained his adventure with Jason the night before as he and Peej waited for their food and coffee.

Tim was just getting to the part about the tree battle when they found a free table. The two of them settled in at the table, drinks and food spread out in front of them.

“Yeah, that sounds about right for a night out with Jason,” Peej laughed. “I’m actually surprised that you got out of it in as good a shape as you did.”

“Yeah, you know, I don’t know why I expected anything else.”

“Just don’t start ignoring your arson case in favor of chasing Ivy,” she warned. “Metropolis needs you, or your brains at least, in working order.” 

“Noted.”

They chatted briefly about their coffee and pastries and a new cocktail bar that just opened in Gotham. It was run by one of Peej’s favorite celebrity chefs and she was dying to try it out.

Peej told Tim all the gritty details of her last blind date. It apparently hadn't gone well, the girl was a kindergarten teacher who smelled like disinfectant and thought driving over thirty-five miles an hour was much too fast. 

Tim pointed out that at least she had actually gone on a date in the past three months, which was more Tim could say for himself.

They both laughed about the sorry state of their love lives, sipping their coffees and lamenting the lack of decent prospects in their lives.

"So, how's the sample analysis going?" Tim asked, taking a sip from his Americano. "You making progress?"

"Mmmmm," Peej hummed around a mouthful of apple pastry. "Yeah, I'm working on narrowing down the genotype associated with that particular brand of flame-using metahuman."

"Kon actually ran into him last night," Tim said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah he was saving this stray dog--"

"Oh god, he really is Kal's clone, isn't he?"

"All signs point to yes on that one," Tim said. "But while he was out and about he smelled smoke."

"And he found a fire?"

"He found someone huddled near a pile of burning rags. He said that, as the guy made movements and gestures with his hands, the flames grew and shrank."

"He controlled the flames with his hands?"

"Specifically, the flames responded to the gestures he was making. It would be premature to say he was controlling them with hand gestures."

"You don't think that's the case?"

Tim took another bite of his pastry and chewed thoughtfully as he considered her question.

"Kon ended up scaring the guy off. When he realized Kon was there, he ran. The minute he did the flames essentially exploded."

"Exploded?"

"Yeah, I'm wondering if he isn’t there, concentrating on controlling the flames, they get out of control."

"Interesting."

"It's useful information, but I'm not sure how far it'll go to help you."

"It could help me narrow down where I want to focus my efforts when I'm developing the compound to neutralize. For example, I would maybe focus a bit more on brain function than any other physical aspect."

Tim nodded his head thoughtfully.

"That makes sense," Tim said.

"I take it Kon didn't manage to nab the guy. Did he even get to follow him at all?" Peej asked.

"Nope, he was worried about the fire spreading so he took care of that first."

"He put it out?"

"Yeah, but I guess it took some effort. He didn't smell super great when he came over to tell me about it afterwards."

Peej cut her eyes to Tim and expression melted into a knowing moue.

"He came over to tell you after, huh?"

Tim casually took a sip of his coffee and met her gaze with his best innocent look.

"He did. He wanted to let me know what happened right away so I could see if I could find the guy on any CCTV footage."

"And of course a call would have been insufficient," Peej said.

"I mean, then when would he have an opportunity to pet my cat?"

Peej burst out laughing. Heads at several tables surrounding theirs turned to look at her. Tim tried his best to blend into the wallpaper. Tim loved Peej, working with her was always sure to be a good time, but she was not a discreet woman. 

"I want to ask if that's a euphemism but given your recent description of your pathetic love life, I'm guessing you mean this literally."

"Very literally," Tim drawled.

"Why is that, by the way?"

"Why is what?"

"Don't play dumb. You're sitting here commiserating with me over the sorry state of your love life when Kon, a good, decent, handsome man, has been sniffing around after you for years. I feel like, if you're still single at this point, you only have yourself to blame."

"That's not entirely inaccurate," Tim mused.

"So why?"

Tim took a deep breath and let it out.

"Kon seems to be ready for something serious..."

"And?"

"And I have no idea what I'm ready for..."

"Wait, you're saying you don't know what you want?"

"I mean, maybe?"

"That seems surprising coming from a guy like you. Don't you spend hours each day meticulously planning each and every move you're about to take?"

Tim blew out a sigh.

"The planning hasn't worked out so well for me lately." Tim admitted. "Just look at how things turned out with Jason last night. I've decided I'm going to try going with the flow for a while. Maybe planning less and seeing how things turn out more."

"I mean, I guess that makes sense, but..."

"But?"

"I'm just saying that given how many plans you make in a day, it's not surprising, from a statistical standpoint, that some are going to fail, right?"

"Wait, what?"

"I'm just saying, it's a numbers game," Peej said casually, taking another sip of her coffee. "Some plans are gonna work and some are gonna fail. I think you're experiencing a combination of recency bias and confirmation bias when you're thinking back to your main dependent variable."

"I--" Tim started and then broke off as he thought about what she was saying.

Peej… did actually have a point. 

Maybe he was spending too much time focusing on plans gone awry and not enough time focusing on all the things that were working out ok for him these days.

Tim was spending more time with his family. He was closer than ever to Jason. He had a cat and a house. He had repaired some of the damage he had done to his relationship with Kon. He was also well on the trail of a meta arsonist, helped Jason solve a Poison Ivy problem and had given Bruce and Dick some evidence he needed to get to the bottom of a Russian mafia case.

There were positives since he had come back to Gotham...

But Tim had mostly been focusing on the negatives.

"So you're saying don't give up on my plans?" Tim ventured.

"I mean not all of them. I'm not saying that you are not the kind of guy who would benefit from spending more time going with the flow," Peej said. "But you're a pretty good planner, so I wouldn't totally give up on that either. Maybe you need to focus a bit more on balancing the two out."

"Not a bad point."

"It's a damn good point," Peej said indignantly. "I excel at making good points."

"Conceded."

They finished up their coffee and pastries as they chatted more about the case and the work Peej was doing with the DNA. She promised to keep him and Kon posted on the progress of the serum. 

After a short hug and a quick kiss, Peej was off again, back to her lab.

Tim had a meeting with a client in Metropolis that afternoon. He would have been the first to admit that he wasn't entirely present at the meeting. He took notes and chatted the man up as best he could, promising to have him a proposal for the work and cost at some vague date he would decide on as soon as he got his head back in the game.

It was late afternoon by the time Tim started heading back to Gotham. During the drive he thought about what Peej had said about his confirmation bias. He thought about Jason said about not beating himself up too much about not knowing what he wanted, just now.

He thought about how it felt to come home to Auguste rubbing at his ankles. He thought about having beers with Jason and fighting with Damian. He thought about the affectionately exasperated expression on Bruce's face when he vowed never to shave again.

He thought about Kon's face when he called Tim beautiful. 

Then he thought about his empty house, the stacks of boxes in his living room and his distinct lack of furniture.

He thought about plans that went wrong and going with the flow. 

Tim reached for his phone and pulled up Kon’s number. The call rang twice before Kon answered.

"Hey Kon. What are you doing tonight?"

^*^*^*^*^

Kon eyed Tim as surreptitiously as he could, knowing full well that Tim probably knew that Kon was watching him. Tim looked much better than he had when Kon left last night. The cuts on his neck and cheek had scabbed over and they didn't look quite as nasty as they had last night. The bruising was hidden by a thick dark blue hoodie and a light grey scarf that made Tim's eyes look brilliantly blue.

The dark circles were still there, under his eyes, but the worry lines weren't as deep as they had been the night before. His shoulders weren't slumped in the exhausted hunch that seemed to overtake Tim after one too many late nights and a couple of missed meals.

Kon hadn't expected Tim to call him today. When he saw Tim's number come up on his phone, he answered right away. He was a little worried that Tim was going to blow him off, to tell him he was going to need to finish up this arson case on his own.

Tim had all but chased Kon out of his house the night before.

But all Tim had done when he called was ask if Kon was busy. When Kon said he wasn't, Tim gave him a location to meet.

When Kon arrived, Tim was waiting at the curb just outside of the address Tim had texted him after the call. Tim was leaning against the side of a white moving van, flicking at his phone. When he spotted Kon walking up to him, Tim had given Kon a wry, almost guilty smile.

"Thanks for meeting me," Tim said.

"Sure," Kon said, eyeing Tim thoughtfully. "What's up?"

"I was hoping you could help me move some furniture..."

"If there is one thing I am very good at, it is picking up large, heavy objects."

Tim grinned at him and clapped him on the shoulder before heading into the nondescript building.

The building turned out to be a furniture distributor. Tim spent about ten minutes arguing with the man behind the counter.

"We said we would deliver your furniture in seven to ten days, Mr. Drake," the man said, annoyance clear in his voice.

"I know that's what you said. That's why I came with a truck to pick it up on my own."

"That's not how we operate, Mr. Drake," the man said.

"I'm not spending another night sleeping on a mattress on my floor. I bought the furniture. You took my money. I want my furniture."

It took about another ten minutes of arguing before the man behind the counter finally threw up his hands and lead Tim and Kon out to a warehouse filled with boxes and parts of furniture.

As the man who worked there gathered up Tim's order, Kon and Tim loaded the items into the back of the moving van. Kon didn't need the help but Tim mouthed the word 'verisimilitude' to him over the top of a cardboard box containing his headboard. Kon figured Tim was probably right.

It took the two of them about thirty minutes to load the van, another twenty-five minutes of driving to make their way back to Tim's place. Tim dropped the moving van back at the rental lot while Kon put the boxes and pieces of furniture in the rooms Tim instructed. Auguste supervised and offered the occasional meow as commentary or advice as Kon worked.

When Tim got back, he called to Kon as he made his way right back over to the kitchen. Kon and Auguste followed suit. Tim gave Auguste a treat, Kon a beer and his phone.

"Thanks again for helping me pick up my furniture. Dinner is on me. Your choice, by the way. In the mood for anything in particular?"

"Indian?" Kon asked, scrolling through Tim's phone looking over the menu for a local Indian place.

"Sounds good.”

Kon ordered for the two of them as Tim fished a toolbox out of one of his half unpacked cardboard boxes in the hallway. Tim made his way upstairs, toolbox in hand. Kon followed suit, a beer in each hand with Auguste hot on his heels.

They found Tim in the bedroom, pulling the pieces of his headboard out of a box.

"Here," Kon said handing Tim the beers both the beers. Moving at super speed, Kon unpacked all the items from the box and assembled the bed. It took him less than three minutes. When he finished, Tim was standing there, looking at his newly assembled bed looking slightly bemused.

Kon took his beer from Tim's hand and grinned at him.

"Cheers," he said, tapping his beer can against Tim's with a grin.

Tim grinned back at him.

"Cheers. I forgot you can do that."

"Yup. How much you wanna bet that I can get the rest of your furniture assembled before dinner gets here?"

"I bet you one dinner."

Kon laughed and handed his beer back to Tim.

"You're on," Kon said.

It took him about fifteen minutes to finish assembling the rest of the furniture. Tim was directing Kon on the placement of the items in the living room when the doorbell rang. Tim and Auguste went to answer the door.

Kon heard Tim talking briefly to the delivery man before the door closed and Tim came back into the living room with a large brown paper bag in hand.

"Nice," Kon said.

"Yes, we can even take the kitchen table on its inaugural voyage," Tim joked.

Tim dug around in a few more boxes to find a few plates and some actual silverware for the two of them to use. He gave the dishes a quick wash and set the table as Kon pulled the food out of the bag.

"Smells good," Kon said as Tim dished out the food.

"You made a good choice," Tim agreed. Auguste meowed his agreement from floor and Tim paused in dishing out the food to give him another treat.

They both sat down on the newly assembled chairs and started eating. Tim looked around as he chewed a mouthful of his dinner. Kon followed his gaze through the doorway to the living room.

"It's looking better," Kon said. "The furniture looks good."

"It does," Tim agreed. "Thanks for all of your help. Now all I need to do is finish unpacking boxes."

"Yeah, for a guy who doesn't have a lot of stuff, you sure do seem to have a pile of boxes left to unpack."

Tim sighed.

"Yeah I noticed that too..."

"But this is progress. At least you have places to put things in now that your drawers and shelves are assembled," Kon pointed out. 

"I do. I think we can safely consider this progress," Tim agreed.

"So what brought on this sudden desire to throw furniture delivery protocols to the wind and grab your own stuff?"

Tim shrugged as he took a bite of his dinner.

"I was tired of having a big empty house."

"It looks a lot less empty now," Kon said, looking around the kitchen and the living room.

When he turned back, he saw Tim eyeing him consideringly with an expression on his face that Kon had never seen before.

"Yeah, it does seem a lot less empty," Tim agreed, and took another bite of his dinner.

Kon left shortly after dinner. The flight back to Metropolis was a bit of a blur as he thought about Tim. He seemed to be doing better than when he had first come back to Gotham City, but it was hard to be sure. Kon could tell he was still struggling with everything. 

Kon wished there was more he could do to help. He knew that helping Tim with the furniture that day was a step in the right direction for Tim, but Kon couldn't help but think of all the stress he had added on to Tim's plate with this arson case and...

And Kon calling him beautiful.  
Kon touched down at home faster than he realized. He slipped into his bedroom and took Krypto out for a quick walk before heading back upstairs. He was just hanging up Krypto's leash and kicking off his shoes when his phone buzzed with a call.

"Hey Bart," he answered, juggling his keys, his phone and his jacket as he pulled it off to hang up on the hook near the door

"Hey buddy, how was your day."

"Weird. Yours?"

"Also weird, I think I saved some smuggled parrots today, but one of them bit me and now I'm looking up potential weird bird-borne illnesses."

"When did that happen?"

"This morning."

"Who smuggles parrots?"

"The worst kind of person."

Kon couldn't argue with that. 

"Where are the parrots now."

"So I took them to the police station."

"Oooookay. And the police said?"

"Thank you, kind citizen. We will look into this smuggling operation."

"And then you got bit?"

"No I got bit when I found them. One of them was making noises in the box it was packed in so I opened and found them..."

"And one bit you."

"He bit me. Do birds get rabies?"

“So, if it was sick, wouldn't anything it passed on to you have showed up already given your super fast metabolism?"

"I don't know how bird diseases work. Maybe the incubation period is years!"

"What are you going to do?"

"I was going to call Tim and then I remembered I need to stop calling him every time something weird happens..."

"So?"

"So I called Cassie."

"And she told you to shut up."

"And she told me to shut up."

"And then you called?"

"Dr. Midnite."

"And he said?"

"Also to shut up."

"For real?"

"I mean, in that polite old man kind of way he has. He thinks I'll be fine."

"So you'll probably be fine."

"Unless I get bird-rabies."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, buddy."

Bart sighed on the other end of the line.

Kon dropped his keys into the basin by the door and made his way into the bedroom. He put Bart on speakerphone as he shucked his clothes.

"So what about you? How was your day?"

"I helped Tim build all his furniture today."

"How did that go?" Bart asked lasciviously.

"It went fine," Kon answered defensively.

"Did you help him test out the bed?" Bart asked slyly.

Kon felt his face go hot and his mouth go dry at the question.

"Why... why would you even ask me that?" Kon stammered out.

"Excellent point. I so don't want to know," Bart said with a groan. "So how is Tim?"

"Hard to say. It sounds like he has a lot on his plate. I kind of feel guilty about bringing him this arson case and..." 

"And what?"

"Confessing my deep and undying love to him."

"Wait when did you do that?"

"When I called him beautiful."

"I'm pretty sure that doesn't count as professing your deep and undying love, Kon."

"What does it count as then?"

"It counts as calling him beautiful. If you haven't been pressuring him outside of that, I think you're totally fine, my dude."

"You think?"

"I mean, yeah. You can't help how you feel and he can't help that he's scared of that. You guys just need to figure out where to go from here."

"You think he's scared?"

"I think... I think Tim is scared of everything all of the time. I think Tim has spent his entire life scared."

"Of me?"

"Of his feelings, mostly. Like all of them."  
"Great."

"You don't think I'm wrong.”

"You're not wrong."

They were both quiet for a long moment before Kon shook his head and decided he couldn't deal with talking about this anymore.

"So how's the parrot bite anyway? Did it get infected."

"No, it's all healed up and looks fine."

"So what are you worried about?"

"Parrot blood poisoning?"

Kon fought down the urge to roll his eyes.

"Good night, Bart."

"Night, Kon."

Kon tossed his phone on the bed and decided that he desperately needed a shower. He tugged off his boxers and tossed them into the hamper before heading into the bathroom.

He took a quick shower and dried off before pulling on his pajama pants. Krypto came and hopped up into bed with Kon as he flicked the lights off in his bedroom. 

Climbing under the covers, Kon took a deep breath and tried to relax into his bed. Krypto snuggled over and rested his head on Kon’s chest, letting out a whimpering little sound until Kon pet his ears.

“What do you think about all of this, boy?” Kon asked Krypto.

Krypto let out a huffing little sigh in response and closed his eyes. 

Kon couldn’t help but agree.

^*^*^*^*^

After Kon left Tim cleaned up the dinner dishes. He spent a few hours unpacking boxes and arranging cupboards, closets, shelves and dressers. It was pushing two in the morning when Tim finally decided he needed to go to bed for the evening. 

Sticky with sweat and a little dust, Tim grabbed a towel pulled off his clothes, tossing them into a hamper before he stepped into the bathroom. Flicking on the taps, Tim waited for the water to heat. When steam was billowing out from behind the curtain Tim stepped into the shower. 

The hot water felt good on Tim's sticky skin and his aching shoulder. Standing under the hot spray for a few long moments, Tim relaxed into the rush of the water. The heat, the steam, the sound and the sensation tumbled Tim into an almost meditative state, more relaxed than he had been in days but too tired to actually feel it.

The past few days had been... 

The past few days had been a bit of a mixed bag.

He knew he should feel good that he finally had his furniture assembled. He had managed to unpack more than half of his boxes. His house was starting to resemble a place where someone actually lived and this weekend he was going to meet with Steph, Cass and Harper and they were going to decorate and put the finishing touches on everything. 

And then this little brownstone would be something closer to a home.

Tim hoped, at least.

But Tim just couldn't shake the feeling that...

That something was missing, somehow.

Taking a deep breath, Tim shook his head before reaching for his loofah. He scrubbed down, taking care as he brushed the loofah over the scabbed skin on his face and neck. The cuts didn't hurt any more and his shoulder was feeling better than he had the day before. But it still ached and pulled when he moved his arm in certain ways.

Tim wasn't sure how he would have gotten all those splinters out if Kon hadn't come by to help that night.

The sudden image of Kon crouched between his legs in this very bathroom flashed through Tim's mind and he felt the liquid heat of sudden arousal flow through his chest and stomach. The feeling was intense and took Tim so much by surprise that he swallowed hard as he felt his cock stiffen in response.

Kon's hands had been so big, so warm, so gentle. His face was so focused and intent as he tended to the cuts on Tim's face. He had bitten his lip in concentration as he worked and Tim shut his eyes to better appreciate the image in his head. Kon’s bottom lip had looked so soft and damp as Kon’s teeth dug into it. 

It made Tim wonder…

Kon was a handsome guy. Tim would never deny that. He had also spent the better part of his life trying hard not to think too much about exactly how handsome Kon was. Kon had been his best friend, Tim was starting to feel like Kon still was Tim’s best friend. Tim had never wanted to jeopardize that connection they had with a relationship that could potentially not work out.

Afterall, everyone Tim cared about walked away from him at some point.

His parents. Bruce. Dick. Steph.

Back then, it had felt almost impossible to consider Kon leaving him. He hadn’t been able to imagine how it would feel to not have Kon to joke around with and to spend time with. But then Tim had just ended up leaving Kon, but Kon had… 

Tim leaving hadn’t changed how Kon felt. It didn’t change what Kon wanted. It didn’t make Kon scared of what he was asking for.

Tim took a deep shaky breath and shook his head. He leaned back against the far wall of his shower stall and tilted his head back, looking up at the ceiling of his bathroom before shutting his eyes and trying to think past the arousal that pooled in his chest.

Tim had been saying no to Kon for years. He always made sure he never gave Kon the opportunity to tell Tim how he felt or what he wanted. He never gave Kon the opportunity to kiss him or hold him too long or… 

Any of the things Kon had obviously been wanting to do for years.

And if Tim was being totally honest with himself, here in the solitude of his shower, Tim had been saying no to himself too. When stray thoughts about Kon had passed through his mind, Tim had tamped them down. When Kon got too close Tim made himself pull away. No matter how much he wanted that hug, that kiss, that caress, or to hear that Kon loved him and wanted him, Tim pulled away. 

Tim swallowed hard and for the first time, let himself think about Kon in all the ways he never let himself before.

Tim thought about Kon’s laugh, his smile, his strong, broad shoulders. He thought about Kon’s hands, so big and always so warm and gentle when he touched Tim. He thought about Kon’s voice, so much deeper now than it had been when they were kids, how it got deeper still when he laughed. He thought about Kon’s eyes, how bright and blue and expressive they always were, incapable of masking what Kon was feeling in any given moment.

He thought about Kon’s mouth, always quirked in a smile, the soft bow of his lips so…

Tim shook his head then, suddenly unable to think about anything but Kon’s mouth. Imagining what it would be like, pressed against his own, or kissing a trail down his neck, nipping at the shell of his ear and…

Tim inhaled a deep shuddering breath and let his hand wrap loosely around his erection. The over sensitive skin of Tim’s cock sent a wave of pleasure washing over him, even at the lightest touch.

The image of Kon on his knees in this very bathroom sprang into Tim’s head again. The feel of Kon’s hands on his thighs as he leaned in close to Tim. The smell of Kon all around him as Kon touched him so gently.

Tim reflexively tightened his fingers around his erection as the image burned into his mind. He gave himself one long steady stroke, head tossed back and hot water spattering across his chest in a sensation that just served to tease him more.

Tim couldn’t help but think of what it would have been like if he had kissed Kon then. If Kon would have kissed him back. If he would have felt as frantic and needful as Tim did now. He wondered, had he asked Kon, if Kon would have kissed a trail of comforting kisses down Tim’s chest. If he would have licked the skin just under the waistband of Tim’s pajama bottoms. If he would have slipped them down over Tim’s hips and taken Tim’s erection into that perfect, expressive mouth.

Tim couldn’t help but imagine the soft heat of Kon’s mouth wrapped all around him. Kryptonians always ran warmer than humans and Kon threw off so much heat. Tim swallowed hard at the thought of being tucked deep into that tight, wet heat.

Tim groaned, tightening his grip on his erection, rocking into a firm, steady rhythm. 

Would Kon have teased him? For being this hard. Or would he have just looked up at Tim knowingly and given Tim exactly what he wanted. 

Tim felt his breath stutter in his chest, his hand felt too good as it moved over his erection. Tim felt his heart start to pound and his breath coming faster as he drove himself closer and closer and closer.

It was a stray thought of what Kon would look like, kneeling shirtless in front of Tim, with Tim’s come splattered across his chest and shoulders that pushed Tim over the edge. 

He came hard, white hot pleasure washing over him with an intensity he hadn’t expected. Tim had to lock his knees to stay upright as he stroked himself through his orgasm. 

Afterwards, he stood panting in his shower struggling to gather his thoughts.

Tim finished scrubbing down with a sort of bonelessness that didn’t make the whole process any easier. His brain was still too fried to think about anything other than collapsing into bed. 

Drying off as best he could with weak arms and legs, Tim didn’t even bother to pull on a pair of boxers before slipping into bed. Auguste was already asleep on the pillow next to head. 

Then Tim, mind blank with exhaustion, utterly wrung out, and totally devoid of logical thought, fell asleep faster than he had in months.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two more chapters, guys! 
> 
> I'm thinking I need to write an Auguste & Krypto side story. Let them solve their own crimes.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peej is helpful. Tim talks about his feelings. Kon rushes in and Tim panics.

Kon's alarm went off way sooner than he was ready for. Groaning, Kon reached for his phone. Punching the alarm off, Kon was weighing the pros and cons of going back to sleep when his phone rang.

Looking at the readout, he saw Peej's name on the screen.

Cursing under his breath, Kon swiped the call live.

"Hey Peej," Kon said, hoping his voice didn't sound as rough as it felt in his throat. "How are you?"

"Tests are done. Did I wake you up?"

"Umm, a little. Yeah," Kon said.

"Long night?" Peej drawled suggestively. "Tim there?"

"Uh, no. He's in Gotham," Kon said deliberately misunderstanding the insinuation. "Why would he be here. It's like 6:30 in the morning."

"Hmmmm, why would he be there? Such a good question," Peej teased.

"Are you giving me shit, right now?"

"I absolutely am. What is going *on* with you two?"

"It’s… We’re going with the-- You know, it’s not super clear to me... Right now..."

"Oh so much drama," Peek drawled.

"It's not drama..." Kon protested.

"If you say so," she singsonged. "Can you and Tim swing by a little later? I have a present for you."

"Is it a way to neutralize this meta dude?"

"Maybe not neutralize. But something close to it."

"That sounds amazing. Maybe you can give me and Tim the rundown a little later?"

"Yeah, maybe when you're a little more awake.”

She said goodbye and Kon tossed his phone back on the nightstand as he yawned widely. He groaned before levering himself out of bed and slumping off to the shower.

Kon scrubbed off in record time. He pulled on his work clothes while Krypto whined at him for his breakfast. After Kon got dressed, he rushed to the kitchen to fill Krypto’s bowl and to make himself a quick batch of peanut butter toast. He wolfed down the toast as he took Krypto out for a short walk. 

As he hung up Krypto’s leash and grabbed his keys, Kon pulled up his work schedule on his phone to find out what fresh hell his Battalion Chief had in store for him that day. Kon walked as fast as he could without raising attention, hoping he wouldn’t be late for work.

As he walked, Kon thought about what Peej had said to him about Tim. The idea of waking up with Tim next to him in his bed was an appealing one. He tried hard to fight down the blush he felt rising on his cheeks as he came through the front door of his Fire Station. Grabbing a much needed cup of coffee, Kon dropped off his work bag and checked in with his Battalion Chief.

The horrible man still seemed mildly annoyed with Kon and gave him the worst maintenance assignments along with more supplemental training that Kon could ever need. After getting some instructions about the training and some paperwork he needed to look into, Kon got to work.

Andy swung by his desk some time after ten in the morning, having solved The Mystery of the Pissed Off Battalion Chief. She informed Kon that he had left an empty sandwich wrapper in one of the battalion pickup trucks after his trip to the elementary school a few days ago. The wrapper got smelly and the truck stunk on the day the chief needed to take it to a meeting with the head of their division. Apparently he had to drive several hours in a very stinky vehicle and was not pleased about it and that was why the Battalion Chief was giving Kon shit.

Which… 

Fair.

Kon tried to focus on the tasks at hand as much as he could as he, cleaned equipment, rifled through files and watched a few training videos. He scrubbed floors, disinfected the locker room, watered the plants outside the fire station and even reorganized several closests. 

It was getting close to lunch time when Kon's stomach started to rumble. The peanut butter toast was not nearly enough food and he was going to need a big lunch sometime soon. Kon turned off the video he was reviewing and thought briefly about where he wanted to go to lunch. While he was considering his options, Kon's focus shifted and his hearing spread out from the small room he was working in, out into the city where he caught the sound of a very familiar heartbeat.

Kon had found, over the years, that most heart beats sounded roughly the same. However, if Kon listened closely to one person's heart for long enough, he could establish a unique rhythm. Kon only knew the heart beats of a few specific people: Clark, Lois, Jon, Cassie, Bart and, of course, Tim.

But Tim’s he knew the best. The rhythm of Tim’s heart was actually the first one Kon had learned. Kon knew Tim’s heartbeat better than anyone else’s. Kon could hear Tim moving around in Metropolis right now. Kon always felt a guilty sort of thrill when he listened in on Tim’s heartbeat. Kon could tell a lot from a heartbeat. Just from the sound of Tim’s heartbeat, Kon could tell when Tim was angry, when he was amused, when he was turned on…

Kon made himself stop that train of thought mid-stream. 

Kon tried very, very hard not to use his super-hearing when he knew Tim was in the throes of passion so to speak. He would be lying if he said he never listened in, but…

Sometimes his super powers were hard to control...

Kon made himself think about something else. 

Tim hadn't called Kon before coming into the city. Which… Was not promising.

Kon listened closely for a few minutes, as Tim moved across several city blocks. He could hear Tim working with his hands on something, his usually steady and even heart rate occasionally elevating as he moved.

Getting up from his seat, Kon headed out of the station. He called to his chief that he was grabbing some lunch. He waited until he was hidden from the view of anyone before taking off at speed, toward the sound of Tim's heartbeat.

Kon found Tim snooping around a large empty warehouse in a district fairly far from the hustle and bustle of Metropolis proper. Tim was looking up at one corner of the building when Kon came up behind him.

"Strange to see you wandering around during the day," Kon said, coming up behind Tim.

Tim turned to face him, not looking particularly surprised to find Kon there.

"As hard as it may be to believe,” Tim said with a smile. “I am here during the daylight hours intentionally. I wanted to see how populus potential targets were during the day to better assess whether they make a good target for our boy Corbin."

"Good idea. Are you setting up even more cameras?”

“A few more, yeah. But I’ll probably wait to do that under cover of darkness.”

“Why didn't you call me before you came into town? I could have helped."

Tim raised an eyebrow at him.

"I assumed you would be working today," Tim said. "It is Wednesday..."

"Yeah I could have figured something out," Kon muttered. "Anyway, I'm glad I ran into you. Peej called today. She thinks she has some potential solutions for us."

"A way to neutralize his metahuman abilities?"

"Not sure exactly what she has, but what she said seemed promising to my sleep addled six am mind."

"I like the sound of that," Tim said, smiling wider at Kon.

Kon smile back at him and shook his head.

"I thought you would."

They chatted as they walked together to the next site that Tim wanted to scout out in daylight hours.

“How’s Jason,” Kon asked as they walked. “He seemed like he had a few when I saw him last and was off to have a few more?

“Yeah he was going to meet a friend of his for a few more drinks. He invited me out with him but...”

“You’re glad you and I got a chance to talk?” Kon asked hopefully.

Tim laughed and shook his head a little.

“I mean, yes. I’m glad we got a chance to talk, but also I could never keep up with Artemis and Jay. Not in a million years. I tried once. It ended badly.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t totally remember. I woke up in the back of a Lyft and Artemis had Jason cradled in her arms like a baby. I’m kind of glad I fell asleep through her getting him into the car…”

Kon couldn’t help but laugh at that image.

“Oh wow, how was that hangover?” Kon asked, laughing.

“My body is a temple. I don’t get hangovers,” Tim said, solemnly.

“You forget that I’ve seen you hungover, Wonder Boy,” Kon teased.

Tim laughed and tilted his head in reluctant agreement. 

“That’s fair,” Tim conceded evenly. 

“So what exactly were you and Jason talking about when I got there? Aside from you going with the flow” Kon asked. “He was looking pretty smug when he ran into me on your sidewalk. Did he somehow manage to, I don’t know, send me an alligator through the mail or something?”

“Jason thinks we should hook up.”

Kon felt his stomach drop out. He tripped and caught himself just in time to avoid taking a header into the sidewalk. 

“He said that?” Kon asked, his mouth suddenly very dry. “I thought he didn’t like me.”

This conversation had taken a turn Kon had very much not expected.

“No, he likes you a lot,” Tim said, looking surprised. “Why do you think he doesn’t like you?”

“He threatened to shoot me like four times.”

“Ohhhhhh. Yeah, he just does that, sometimes,” Tim said a little too casually for Kon’s taste.

“And you’re taking advice from his guy?”

“I mean, he’s not usually wrong about things.”

“He was wrong about shooting me!” Kon exclaimed.

“You’d have been fine,” Tim said dismissively. 

“Do you think you should hook up with me?” Kon asked.

“I’m… no longer actively opposed to the idea.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I’m still thinking,” Tim said.

“You think too much,” Kon pointed out.

“I mean, yeah.”

“I thought you were going with the flow now.”

“I’m doing my best but the thinking is hard to turn off entirely. And Peej is trying to talk me out of avoiding all plans entirely.”

Kon sighed and shook his head, trying to fight down the mixture of amusement and frustration that was running through him.

“Speaking of Peej, it's probably best if we head back to her lab after hours,” Kon said.

“Yeah, I'm going to finish scoping out a few more sites today. Maybe we can meet when you're done with work and head over to the lab?"

"Sounds like a plan. Have you seen Bart since you've been back?”

"I've seen Bart a few times. He came over the day after I moved in and insisted on a grand tour."

"He didn't tell me that!" Kon said. "That little sneak."

"He could have avoided talking about it from sheer embarrassment. Auguste does not care for him. Bart was all staticy when he got there and gave Auguste a shock when he tried to pet him. Auguste took a swipe at Bart and managed to scratch him. I've never seem Bart so surprised."

"Ohhhhh, wow. Good for Auguste. Are we sure Damian hasn't given him some type of advanced powers? Maybe he needed a test subject before he tried them out on BatCow?"

"It's possible," Tim said with grim amusement. 

"Alright, well I get off at four, I'll shoot you a text when I'm done."

Tim nodded in agreement and gave Kon an airy wave as Kon took off back towards work.

He stopped to grab a couple of burritos for lunch, going to his boss’ favorite TexMex spot. He grabbed four burritos, two for him, one for Andy and one for his boss. Kon dropped off a burrito of thanks to Andy for solving the Mystery of the Pissed Off Battalion Chief. He dropped one off to the Battalion Chief as a peace offering and promised to check the truck for any an all sandwich wrappers moving forward. He also promised to wash the truck and make sure it was sufficiently aired out. 

The Chief seemed satisfied with Kon’s apology and peace offering. He left Kon alone for the rest of the day so the time sped by for Kon as he thought about seeing Tim again that evening.

Kon left work just after four in the afternoon and gave Tim a quick call as he walked out the door.

"Hey Kon," Tim answered the phone when Kon called. "Done with work?"

"Yup, where are you now?" Kon asked. “I’ll meet you there?”

“I’m a coffee shop in West Metropolis called Books and Brews.”

“Great,” Kon said, “I love that place! I’ll be there in ten. Grab me a muffin.”

Kon was there sooner than ten, as he slowed to a walk about a block away from the coffee shop, Kon spotted Tim right away. He was camped out at a table outside. He had his laptop and a notebook spread across the table. He was sipping at a large cup of coffee and idly picking at a muffin on his plate.

Kon came up behind him and picked a piece of muffin up off the plate. He popped it in his mouth and gave Tim a wave as he chewed.

“Hey, I talked to Peej,” Tim said, gesturing for Kon to sit down at the seat across the table from him. “She said we can come by at 5:30 and she’ll have some things for us then.”

“Great,” Kon said. “Hopefully it won’t take too long. I want to get back to my place and take Krypto out before we go back out to set up those cameras tonight.”

Tim nodded and took another sip of coffee. 

“Sounds like a good plan. 

“Yeah, I only have three sites to set out equipment. If we divide and conquer, it shouldn’t take too long. The only thing is that I’ll need to test the feeds later tonight. I just want to make sure they are all broadcasting back to my base.”

They hung out at the coffee shop for another hour or so. Kon finished Tim’s much neglected muffin while Tim finished off his coffee. They idly chatted about the case, Jason’s detente with Poison Ivy, Bruce’s issues with the Russian mafia and Damian’s fondness for Auguste. 

A soon as they finished their coffees, Tim packed up his computer and they walked to Starr Enterprises together. Kon texted her when they got there and Peej buzzed them into the building. She was slumped over a lab bench when they found their way to her neck of the building.

“Karen?” Tim called and gave her a little wave when she looked up.

“Hey boys,” Peej said smiling, “how was your day?”

“Long,” Kon said, thinking bitterly of all the cleaning his Battalion Chief had assigned him that day. “And soggy.”

“Bright,” Tim said. “I spent too much time in the sun today. I’m a little worried I have some sunburn.”

Kon had noticed a little redness on the top of Tim’s nose and spread out across his cheeks. It was kind of cute, but it did make Kon worry about how easily Tim got sunburned.

“Well, I have a treat for you,” Peej said, holding up a few vials of liquid.

“That is?” Kon prompted.

“An agent that, while it won’t entirely neutralize his powers, will significantly dampen his abilities,” Peej said. “Combined with a nice strong sedative, this should help you take the kid down with minimal harm done to all parties involved.

“Good enough for me!” Kon said, reaching for the vials. 

Peej pulled them out of Kon’s reach, smiling at him. Then she handed them to Tim who had been holding out his hand expectantly.

“I’m guessing Tim has already prepared a nice delivery system for this.”

“I have, in fact,” Tim confirmed, pulling a pouch out of the work bag he had been carrying.

Tim pulled a few darts from the bag and proceeded to full them with the liquid Peej had given them. After he was done, he stashed the darts, the rest of the vials and what looked like a little gun back in his pack.

“See? Another plan that actually worked,” Peej grinned at them.

“Thanks, Peej,” Tim said, smiling at her. “We owe you one.”

“This one owes me several,” Peej said, tilting her head towards Kon.

“That’s fair. I do you owe several at this point,” Kon said, smiling at her.

“You two can buy me dinner next week. At that new fancy fusion place downtown.”

“Deal,” Tim agreed. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a meta to find.”

Peej walked them to the front door of her lab and they said their goodbyes. 

Tim and Kon walked back towards Kon’s apartment, chatting about next moves.

“We should wait until he’s alone to confront him,” Tim said. “I want to make sure there’s no collateral damage when we take him in.”

“Probably a good move,” Kon agreed. “But he’s a twenty-something who lives with his parents and doesn’t drive. When’s he ever alone?”

“Hmmmm,” Tim said. “Excellent point. I was thinking about that.”

“And.”

“Well, I’m hoping he decides to test his limits again,” Tim said.

“Oh, and that would lead him to one of the warehouses that you cameraed up earlier…” Kon said.

“Exactly,” Tim said. “We wait for him to hit one of those targets and then we swoop in.”

“Neutralize him,” Kon finished.

“Yup, we just need to wait for him to show up at one of our sites,” Tim said.

“How long do you think that will take?” Kon asked.

“Hard to say. Maybe another week or two at most?”

“You don’t think he’ll pose a threat to anyone while we wait?” Kon asked.

“He hasn’t hurt anyone yet,” Tim pointed out. “I think we’ll be fine to wait.”

Kon had trouble falling asleep that night. He couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Jason told Tim to hook up with him and Tim was ‘taking that under advisement.’

He slept fitfully, dreaming about Tim and fires and cats and Krypto. When his phone went off in the middle of the night, it blended into the mad rukus of his dreams. When it finally jolted him awake, Kon felt even more exhausted than he had before he went to sleep. 

Fumbling for his phone, Kon saw Tim’s name on the read out.

“‘Lo?” Kon answered. “Everything ok?”

“My cameras detected movement at one of the potential-- Shit.”

“Shit what?”

“He just started another fire. Site H,” Tim said urgently.

“What’s the address, again?” Kon said, jumping out of bed and reaching for some clothes. 

Tim gave it to him as he pulled on his jeans and t-shirt.

“I can be there in--” Kon began and then his phone buzzed again. “Fuck.”

Kon looked at the read out on his phone and saw it was a call from the station.

“I’m getting a call in from the station,” Kon said. “You think it’s for this?”

“Yeah, I know it is. I called it in just now,” Tim said.

“Probably a good move,” Kon conceded. “I need to go there first and get geared up.”

“Ok,” Tim said. “I’ll see you over there. Hopefully we can catch him fleeing the scene.”

It took Kon’s Battalion just ten minutes to get suited up and drive to the scene. This site was a little different from the others in that there were other buildings nearby. They were just setting up to contain the fire, when Kon heard one of the members of his Battalion shouting from across the parking lot where they had set up.

Kon rushed over to hear everyone calling to each other.

“What’s going on?” Kon shouted above the roar of the flames.

“I think someone is inside the other building!” Andy called back to him.

Using his X-ray vision, Kon looked over at the building. The smoke was thick, even inside the other building, but Kon could still make out the silhouette of a person moving around inside.

“You guys go take care of the set up!” Kon called. “I’ll check if I can see anything from the other side of the building. I think there are windows around back I can try and look in.”

“Be careful!” Andy called after him and Kon waved to her as he jogged over to the far side of the building. 

Extending his TTK around himself, Kon found a loose window and pushed inside the building. It was hot as hell inside and the smoke was heavy in the air. Even with his TTK the smoke still felt oppressive. It swirled around so thick that Kon’s X-ray vision only worked in short bursts. He used his super-hearing to listen for the sounds of movements in the building. He focused in on the sounds of birds and rats fleeing the building until he heard the unmistakable shuffle of a shoe on the pavement.

Kon followed the sound around two corners before he caught sight of a man walking back through the fire. Kon was about to call to the man when he heard them shout in surprise. He had long straggly hair. 

It must be Corbin. 

Kon tried to call something reassuring to Corbin but his voice was lost in the roar of the fire. He tried to move closer when the roar grew louder into a wild burst of sound and suddenly a massive wall of flames shot up all around Kon, engulfing him in a terrible, desperate, liquid heat. 

^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Tim knew, objectively, that he couldn’t take the jet any faster than he was. That didn’t make the impulse he felt to speed up any easier to fight down. 

The video feed from the camera outside of the building that had caught on fire was up on a screen in Tim’s jet. The fire raged as Kon’s battalion worked to contain the flames. The firefighter uniforms were roughly the same and Tim couldn’t tell Kon from any of the others. It made him even more anxious.

Tim set the jet down in a park about three blocks from the fire. He could already smell the smoke in the air as he took off at a sprint toward the building. 

Tim rounded the corner about fifty yards from the fire. As he was nearing the entrance, he caught sight of a figure dressed as a firefighter push through a window and slip inside the building.

Tim's heart started to pound as he realized that it must have been Kon sneaking inside. Sparing only a quick thought for why the hell Kon would climb secretly into a burning building, Tim scoped out the parameter.

Realizing that he and Kon hadn't established a communication method that couldn’t be overheard by other people around them, Tim pushed himself to run faster. Pulling his breather up over his mouth, Tim followed Kon through the window and slipped inside the building.

The smoke was thick and heavy and Tim flipped his mask lenses to night vision to see if he could make out anything through the dense smog. Looking around frantically, Tim couldn't see Kon anywhere. Tim made his way through the warehouse, trying to stay close to the wall so that he didn't lose track of where he was in the building.

Tim's shook his head in frustration, wishing he could call out to Kon.

Tim entered another, smaller room, still looking around frantically for Kon. Just as he was considering venturing further afield from the wall, Tim caught sight of two figures silhouetted against the billowing smoke.

Through a clearing in the smoke, Tim could make out the distinctive day glow yellow of Kon's firefighter uniform. The second figure was wearing jeans, a dark hoodie with a skull cap pulled down low over his brow. Tim knew at once that it was Adam Corbin, trying to flee from his crime.

Desperately grateful for both his rebreather and the fire retardant nature of his uniform, Tim considered moving in on both of them.

Tim only had a moment to consider his next move when a burst of flames engulfed both Kon and Corbin. The power and pressure of the blast of flame, pushed Tim back. Ducking into a roll, Tim hid behind a thick steel support beam holding up the warehouse roof.

The minute the blast died down enough, Tim peeked his head around the beam to see if he could spot Corbin or Kon. Tim's heart skipped a beat when he saw Kon huddled on the floor, though his uniform remained intact and unburned. Tim guessed Kon had used his TTK to protect himself when the blast hit him.

It was clear Corbin was confused at how Kon was seemingly unaffected by his blast. He was leaning over Kon's prone form, looking at him curiously. He seemed to be suppressing the flames and smoke around himself and Kon.

Tim took the opportunity and the clearing in the smoke, to pull out the dart gun he had loaded with the serum that Peej had given them earlier that day. Tim had about eight darts full of the serum but Peej said it should only take about two to adequately neutralize Corbin.

Taking careful aim, Tim fired two quick shots, hitting Corbin twice in the neck.

Corbin reared back and slapped a hand to the darts. The gesture only served to press the darts further into his neck. Tim hit him with two more darts as the meta looked around, furiously.

The serum worked quickly, apparently. The fire that had been whipping up violently started to stutter and smoke. Tim came out from behind the support beam fully and pulled another dart gun from his belt. This one contained a powerful sedative.

Kon was just rolling out of Tim's way when Tim lifted the sedative gun and hit Corbin with two more darts, this time in the shoulder.

Tim saw more than heard Corbin yell with both fear and surprise.

The sedatives worked even faster than Peej's serum. Kon caught Corbin as he lost his balance and began to tumble to the floor.

Turning quickly, Kon gave Tim what looked like a grateful wave. Tim smiled at him around his rebreather, Kon was moving toward Tim with Corbin in his arms when a large support beam in another room crashed to the floor in a rain of sparks and licking flames.

Kon picked up the pace and gestured for Tim to follow him. Rather than looking for a window or a door to use as an exit, Kon just made his way to the nearest externally facing wall. He punched a hole in the wall and jumped out, pulling Tim along with him. The fire raged hot and terrifying behind them. 

Kon and Tim jogged several yards away from the building and Kon set Corbin down.

"I gotta close the hole!" Kon called to Tim. "The oxygen could make the place go up faster."

Tim nodded and started zip stripping Corbin just as Kon ran back over to the building wall. Using his super speed, he reassembled as much of the wall as he could, then used his heat vision to melt pieces back in place, stifling any new flow of oxygen to the building.

Tim pulled out his rebreather as Kon ran back over. Pulling off his fire helmet, Kon pulled Tim into his arms and gave him a wet, smokey kiss.

"You do this for a living?" Tim gasped into the kiss. Kon smiled at him, his face covered in soot.

"I don't usually have dudes actively trying to set me on fire, so..."

"Still. Hard pass." Tim said.

Kon gave him another kiss on the temple before nodding down at Corbin.

"How long will he be out?"

Tim shrugged.

"Hard to say. For a normal human, I'd say six hours. But I’m not sure how his meta genes would impact how he metabolizes things..."

"Soooo?"

"I have no idea, so I'm gonna call Maggie and hope he doesn't wake up before she gets here."

Kon raised a sooty eyebrow at Tim.

"And if he does wake up?"

"I punch him in the face, sedate him again and tell Maggie to hurry?" Tim suggested.

"How many sedatives do you have in that belt?" Kon said, looking with exaggerated suspicion at Tim's belt.

"Don't worry about it," Tim said in a teasingly cagey tone of voice.

Kon grinned at him and shook his head.

"Never change, Wonder Boy," Kon said affectionately.

"Promise," Tim replied.

"Alright, you get in touch with Maggie and I'm gonna go lie and say I didn't see anyone in the building, and hope I'm a good enough liar that I get to keep my job."

"Good luck!" Tim said.

Kon gave him an airy wave and Tim pulled out his phone.

He called Maggie and gave her his GPS coordinates, asking her to hurry. Then he followed up with a call to Peej, letting her know that he thought that her serum worked and that Maggie might need more of it. She promised to get to work manufacturing more of the serum and signed off so she could hurry back to the lab.

It look Maggie less than ten minutes to get a containment unit over to where Tim was standing with Corbin. By that time, Kon's battalion realized something was up and some of them were coming to meet Maggie’s trucks.

Maggie went over to brief them while Tim and a few of Maggie's lieutenants loaded Corbin into one of the containment vans. The guy didn't wake up the whole time.

Tim brought Maggie and the rest of her team up to speed on what they knew about the man and how he had manipulated the flames

Maggie thanked Tim and told him to tell Kon she appreciated his help as well. Tim promised to convey the message. He asked her to keep him posted on what happened with Corbin and assured her that Peej would have a full supply of the repression serum for her soon.

Maggie gave him and Kon’s Battalion Chief a wave before taking off back to her base with her new meta in tow. A convoy of large armored vehicles made their way out of the parking lot by the flaming building as they took Corbin off into custody.

Tim pulled out his phone will he walked back to his car. Vowing to shower eight times when he got home to get the smell of smoke off his skin and out of his hair, Tim pulled up his encrypted texting program and sent a message to Kon.

*Maggie says thanks. Come to my place when you’re done. Want to talk to you about some things.*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter, guys! You ready for this ending?


	9. Chapter 9 - THE END!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kon is sleepy and doesn't think things through. There are cuddles and more than cuddles. *waggles eyebrows* Tim comes to terms with some things.
> 
> But seriously there's smut in this chapter, so be warned. :)

It took them almost four hours to put the fire out. Despite the exhaustion everyone was feeling after fighting the fire, they all stood around talking about Maggie and her unit coming to take the meta away.

They couldn't believe that the fires they had been fighting had been the result of a meta gone rogue. Apparently everyone was very impressed with Maggie and Red Robin teaming up to take down a meta human right in their own backyard. Andy kept talking about how handsome Red Robin was, how he had taken the meta down all by himself.

Kon half wanted to correct her, to tell her that Superboy had been an important part of the case. But he didn't think there would be any way he could explain how he knew that or why he would bring up.

They all stood around in the parking lot of the smoldering building for nearly an hour talking about their meta arsonist as they kept an eye out for hot spots.

"I knew someone set those fires," Andy said, sounding pleased with herself. "I just didn't consider it could have been a meta. We had less of those in Star City than Metropolis seems to have.”

"Metropolis is the home of the weird,” Kon said agreeably. 

"So, you didn't find the guy? The one we saw in the building earlier?" Andy asked him.

"When I looked in the windows I didn't see anyone. It didn't seem safe to go in."

"Maybe it wasn't a homeless guy after all," Andy speculated. "Maybe we saw the guy who was starting the fires!’

"Jeeze, I’m glad I didn’t catch up with him then," Kon hedged. “That would have been scary. Who knows what he would have done to me.”

“Seriously! He could have turned you into charcoal,” Andy said, excitedly. "I bet it was him. We almost caught him ourselves!"

"It's a good thing we didn't," Kon said. "I’d rather leave guys like that to the professionals. I’ll stick with my tried and true firehose.”

"Yeah, maybe," Andy gushed. "But if we had caught him Red Robin might have come over to talk with us..."

Kon fought down the urge to roll his eyes.

"I get the impression Red Robin isn't much of a talker," Kon drawled.

"Well..." Andy said, grinning up at Kon. "I'm not so much interested in what he has to say... I'd kind of just want to look at him."

"Hmmmm, I wonder--" Kon began and broke off deliberately.

"You wonder what?" Andy asked.

"I wonder if this counts as sexual harassment or if it's just gross."

"Hey, you can go be sexually repressed over there," Andy said, pointing the fire truck they had driven in on. "Nadia and I will stay over here and talk about Red Robin's fine, fine bottom."

Kon had to concede that it was a fine, fine bottom so he stayed. It was hard not to do any editorializing himself on the subject, but he managed to keep everything as PG as possible. 

The sun was just starting to come up when they all decided it was safe to leave the site of the fire and to go home. They took the truck back to the station and waved goodbye in the station parking lot. As Kon took off back towards his apartment he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

That was when he saw Tim's text messages asking him to head to Tim’s place.

The clock on his phone read 4:23 am by the time Kon got back to his apartment. He showered, pulled on fresh clothes. Kon fed Krypto while he made a pot of coffee and some peanut butter toast. He downed two cups of coffee and the toast before patting Krypto on the head and making his way to the fire escape outside his living room.

Kicking up from the fire escape, Kon flew off in the direction of Gotham City. The air was thick with fresh morning dew of early spring. Kon felt his clothes going damp and chill, but he didn't mind. It helped wake him up even more than the coffee had.

Half wishing he could spend more time enjoying his early morning flight, the knot of anxiety in the base of Kon's stomach was growing every moment.

Maybe Tim had decided that going with the flow wasn’t a good idea after all. Maybe he actually hated kissing Kon. Maybe he decided to go back to China and...

He tried hard not to think about what Tim wanted to talk to him about. Blanking his mind, Kon set down in the park about three blocks from Tim's place. He pulled out his cell phone as walked the rest of the way to Tim's brownstone. Kon sent a few quick texts to Tim as he stood at his front door.

*I'm here.*

*Hey you coming down?*

*Tim?*

Kon realized then that Tim had sent him those texts a few hours before and was probably sleeping now. Kon was cursing under his breath wondering what to do when a text from Tim came through.

*Coming. Give me a minute*

Tim opened his front door less than a minute later, ushering Kon inside.

Tim was wearing a pair of loose blue pajama pants that rode low on his slender hips. His pale chest had new scars that Kon hadn't seen before. The thin, dark trail of hair that ran from Tim's belly button and disappeared into the waistband of Tim's pajama pants made Kon’s stomach knot in a tight curl of arousal he tried to tamp down.

Kon swallowed hard and made himself look back up at Tim's face.

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking when I--"

"No, no, it's fine," Tim said, running a hair through his sleep tousled hair. His voice was rough with sleep and his eyes were still a little heavy lidded. He gave Kon a wry, sleepy smile and shook his head. "I think we've had an overarching issue with communicating clearly with each other for a couple of years now. This is just another case in point."

"You think so?" Kon asked, as Tim lead them both into the kitchen.

Tim set a kettle on his stove and started to prep his pour over coffee pot.

"I do," Tim said. "It's mostly my fault. I think I've been trying to set boundaries that don't make sense and aren't actually helpful. To either of us."

"Boundaries?"

Tim shook his head and smiled at Kon.

"It doesn't matter. The moral of the story is--" Tim broke off as he dug into a work bag he had sitting on a stool at his kitchen island. He pulled out a small device and handed it Kon. "We need to talk more."

Kon reached out his hand and Tim dropped the small device into his palm.

"A communicator?" Kon asked.

"I feel like we'll probably be working together a lot more now. It's important that we have a way to talk to each other that is not audible to the bad guys. For example when we're in a smoke filled burning building trying to take down a metahuman who is hell bent on blowing you to hell."

Kon grimaced and gave Tim a serious look.

"You shouldn't have gone in," Kon told Tim seriously. "You could have been badly hurt."

"It was not the first time I ran into a burning building, Kon," Tim pointed out.

"Jesus," Kon sighed. "Sometimes I wish you wouldn't tell me things like that."

"Kon, this is--" Tim started but Kon cut him off.

"The life we choose to live," Kon finished for him. "Yeah, I know. That doesn't mean I don't get to be scared as hell when a burning building nearly falls on you."

"That's fair," Tim said. "And also part of the reason why we now have fancy new communicators."

“I feel like that might actually increase my level of anxiety. I feel like I’m going to shout at you not to do things and then have to watch you do them anyway.”

“I feel like that’s been a large and ever present part of our relationship for years. How have you not come to terms with this yet?”

“I’m an eternal optimist,” Kon said and huffed out a laugh as he willed the pot of water to come to a boil faster.

“At least one of us is…”

“Expect a lot of shouting from me when you do dangerous things,” Kon said, still fixating on the fear he felt when he saw Tim in the inferno. “I just want to be clear, I will still shout at you.”

“I count on it,” Tim teased. “Did you get any sleep last night.”

Kon shrugged, eyeing the kettle on the stove and wondering briefly if it would come to a boil faster if he used his heat vision. But then, he didn’t want melt Tim’s only kettle. 

“Not really. I didn’t sleep much before the call came in and then it took hours to put the damn fire out--”

“It’s all taken care of? I wasn’t sure if it was out or if you were relieved.”

“We got it out. The Battalion Chief was super impressed with us.”

“I’m impressed too,” Tim said.

“Call my boss and tell him. Better yet, give my boss enough money that he can afford to give me a raise and then call and tell him how impressed you are.”

Tim laughed and pulled the now whistling kettle off his stove.

“I’ll take that under advisement,” Tim said, pouring the hot water over the coffee grounds.

Kon dug around Tim’s fairly sparse kitchen, looking for a couple of mugs. He found two and put them next to Tim on the counter. He leaned on the counter next to Tim, breathing in the scent of the brewing coffee and the soap Tim had clearly used a lot of when he got home that night.

“Anyway, everyone wanted to talk about the meta, after… So I had to hang around and listen to gossip for a while before I could head back home.”

“Yikes,” Tim said, pouring mugs of coffee for Kon and himself.

Kon took a long sip, not caring that it was still near boiling. It was probably one of the best cups of coffee Kon had ever had. It was way better than anything he had ever brewed for himself.

“God, how are you so perfect at absolutely everything?” Kon signed into his coffee cup.

Tim looked up at Kon and lifted an eyebrow.

“What?”

“Your coffee is so good,” Kon said plaintively.

“You don’t think that has anything to do with the sleep deprivation you’re currently experiencing?”

“Not at all,” Kon said confidently. “It’s all Robin Magic. I’m sure of it.”

Tim laughed and took took a sip of coffee himself before shaking his head wryly.

“You’re always so sure about everything,” Tim said, giving Kon a smile that looked self deprecating and uncertain.

Kon looked at Tim consideringly for a few long moments. Despite the early hour, the pajamas and the fact that they were in Tim’s cozy kitchen, there was still a line of tension around Tim’s shoulders. His face was tight and unsure. His mouth was pressed into a thin line that made Kon question his memory of how soft those lips had been against his mouth a few hours before. 

“Tim?” Kon said, and Tim looked back up at him, his face twisted into a wry grimace.

“How are you always so sure?” Tim asked him in a low tone of voice that very much signaled he wasn’t talking about Kon’s strong feelings regarding Tim’s coffee making skills anymore.

Setting his coffee mug on the counter, Kon walked over to Tim. He took Tim’s coffee out of his hands and set it down next to the sink, then Kon pulled Tim into a hug.

Kon felt Tim tense even more in his arms and he tilted his head back to look up into Kon’s face.

“I get that you’re feeling a little lost right now. I get you’re not sure of your footing and where you want to be and who you want to be with—“ Kon began.

“Kon—“ Tim said but Kon shook his head to silence him.

“Hey, I’m just saying, I get it. Just always remember, I’m sure enough about this for the both of us.”

Tim huffed out a soft laugh and finally relaxed into Kon’s arms, resting his head on Kon’s shoulder.

Kon pressed a soft kiss to Tim’s temple, then rested his cheek on the top of Tim’s head.

"How close are you to passing out, right now?" Tim asked Kon conversationally.

"I think I took a micro nap just now when I shut my eyes," Kon groaned.

Tim laughed and pulled back out of Kon's arms. He looked up at Kon with a smile.

"Let's go back to sleep," Tim said.

"Bwah?" Kon asked.

Tim laughed again and grabbed Kon's hand. He lead Kon through the house and up to his bedroom.

Tim's room was sparse. There was a large bed, a chest of drawers and a night table with a lamp. A few unpacked boxes were stacked along one wall. A few large photographs were framed and leaning against the bedroom walls. The photographs were all cityscapes of Gotham along with a few pictures of his family and the Young Justice crew.

"Did you take those?" Kon asked, gesturing to the photos.

"Mmmm, I did," Tim confirmed, standing in front of one of the photographs. "These were the ones I had up in my place in China, but I might change them out now that I'm home."

Kon gave Tim a skeptical look.

"You had pictures of Gotham City on your walls while you were living in China?"

"I did."

"Yeah, you needed to move home man. That's absolutely a sign of you needed to be somewhere else."

"Oh? You're sure?" Tim asked, smiling.

Kon smiled back.

"I'm sure."

Tim shook his head in amusement while he climbed into his bed.

Kon only hesitated for a moment before he shucked his jeans and tshirt and slipped into the bed after him.

Kon immediately reached out an arm and pulled Tim in close to him. Tim rolled over onto his side and rested his head on Kon's shoulder.

"This," Kon sighed, squeezing Tim's shoulders, "is exactly what I needed."

"Yeah?" Tim asked.

"For sure. Makes all the firefighting super worth it."

"You do still smell a little like smoke."

"You can help me scrub off in the morning," Kon promised.

"Ohhhh, someone's feeling pretty confident over there," Tim teased.

Kon laughed and pressed a kiss to Tim's temple.

"I'm just feeling optimistic," Kon said.

"Do you remember the first time we slept together like this?" Tim asked. "God, I think I was like thirteen..."

"I do. You drooled on me," Kon teased.

"I can't promise I won't do that again," Tim said.

"Mmmm, that's ok. You're a lot cuter now than when you were thirteen. It's easier to forgive."

"I’m glad you think so," Tim said, laughter clear in his voice.

"It was the hair. I'm so glad you changed your hair," Kon teased.

"Ohhh, buddy, you do not want to bring up bad teenage haircuts. You don't have a leg to stand on."

"That's fair," Kon conceded, sleepily.

They fell asleep like that, in each others arms, still smelling faintly of smoke, but happy.

^*^*^*^*^*^*

Tim woke up before Kon. He came awake slowly, realizing he was in bed with someone and not remembering it was Kon right away.

Not wanting to move and potentially wake Kon, Tim tried to stay still in bed.

Tilting his head back only slightly, Tim saw Kon was still deeply asleep. His head was tilted to one side, his nose nestled in Tim's hair. He was breathing deeply and while the dark circles under his eyes had faded somewhat, they were still apparent.

Tim wished for a moment that his phone was within arm's reach. He wanted to check the time and his messages. Maggie had promised to text him as soon as she got the chance to interview Corbin, and he hadn't heard from her before he went to bed the night before. He also had a few work calls he would have to make and Jason needed--

But then Tim decided not to worry about those things right now. He was warm and comfortable and being in Kon's arms felt very, very nice.

Breathing in deeply, Tim pressed his face more firmly in the crook of Kon's shoulder and reveled in the feel of his skin. It was pretty perfect.

"Oh god," he heard Kon groan next to him. "What time is it?"

"Not sure," Tim answered. "Didn't want to wake you."

Kon made a low growly noise and reached out a hand to grab his jeans off the floor. Fishing his phone out of the pocket, Kon cursed softly when he saw the time.

"How did I sleep this late?"

"I suspect you had a bit of sleep debt you needed to pay off..." Tim offered.

"Truth. I should have set an alarm, though. I really should get to work in a bit. I'm gonna have so much paperwork to fill out."

"What time do you need to be in?" Tim asked.

"Preferably some time before noon. The Battalion Chief's been giving me shit lately for sandwich related reasons. Couldn't hurt to suck up to him a little."

"I thought the plan was for me to buy him off."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that excellent plan... Whoever came up with that must be a genius."

"Oh, no doubt," Tim agreed and reached for his phone.

There were a few texts from Maggie, a couple from Jason, six from Cass that were just emojis, and a handful of work emails.

"Maggie says the guy confessed to setting the fires last night," Tim told Kon, scrolling through the texts from Maggie. "He said he didn't want to hurt anyone. That he panicked when he saw us and he was sorry he almost hurt us. He said he was just testing out his powers."

"Sooo, about what we thought," Kon said, leaning back in Tim's bed. He tucked one muscular arm behind his head and looked at Tim thoughtfully.

"I guess so," Tim said. "She said they're going to set him up with someone who can help him learn to control his power. She said they're thinking they may not lock him up so long as he agrees to monitoring."

"That's good," Kon said. "He seemed fine when he wasn't setting fires. He even liked my dog."

"Everyone likes your dog," Tim pointed out.

"Everyone but super villains," Kon pointed out.

Tim laughed and rolled over to lay partially on Kon's chest and wrap an arm around him.

"Mmmmm," Kon hummed. "You feel even better than you did last night."

"Oh?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, I was too tired to appreciate this fully last night," Kon said. "Now, in the warm light of day, I know exactly how lucky I am."

"You're so full of it," Tim said to him.

"I'm so full of loooooove," Kon cooed looking down at Tim with a grin and faux doe eyes.

"Oh dear god," Tim groaned, making as if he was about to get out of bed. Kon laughed and grabbed him around the waist, pulling him back into the bed and rolling Tim under him.

Tim grimaced and play wrestled with Kon, still pretending to try to flee the bed. Kon finally rolled Tim under him, holding his hands over his head. Tim looked up, laughing, but stopped immediately when he saw the look on Kon's face.

Kon's eyes had gone to a dark, glittering blue. There was a light ring of a warm red glow around his irises as he stared down at Tim. Kon's mouth was pressed into a thoughtful line and Tim watched, Kon sunk his teeth into his lower lip.

"Ahhh," Tim started, "You're sure that--"

Kon huffed out a laugh before answering.

"There are so many things I'm sure about right now, Tim. I couldn't even begin to list them." Kon husked to Tim.

Tim shivered at the roughened sound of Kon’s voice.

"Oooh, I like it when you do that," Kon said, dipping his head to press a soft kiss to the side of Tim's neck.

Tim felt his breath catch in the back of his throat at the sensation of Kon's lips on his neck. Kon breathed out a groan and Tim shivered again. He pressed his wrists back up against Kon's arms, and Kon loosened his grip. Tim pulled his hands free and immediately ran them down the broad length of Kon's back.

"Mmmm, your hands always feel so good," Kon husked.

"One of the many things you're sure about?" Tim teased.

"For sure," Kon agreed, nuzzling the side of Tim's neck.

Kon pressed a series of kisses down Tim's neck and across his throat. Tim ran one of his hands up to tangle in Kon's hair.

Tim couldn't help but tilt his head back and focus on the feel of Kon's lips on his neck.

Kissing his way up Tim's neck, Kon nibbled at the stubble that lined Tim's jaw. Tim used the hand cupped at the base of Kon's skull to tilt his head back. Tim kissed Kon deeply then, their mouths pressed together, tongues brushing and delving, breathing turning deep and ragged as they kissed.

"God," Kon slurred against Tim's mouth. "So sure."

Tim laughed into the kiss but it turned abruptly into a gasp when Kon threw a leg over Tim's and pressed their bodies fully together.

"Ohhh, yes," Kon murmured as he fitted their bodies more closely together. "I want to hear you make that sound every minute for the rest of my life."

"That sounds impractical," Tim pointed out. "Are you sure?”

Kon ignored his question, just rocked his hips gently against Tim's in a soft, rhythmic motion.

"Kon--" Tim gasped and wrapped his arms more tightly around Kon's shoulders.

"Yeah," Kon panted. "Yeah, I know. This feels... too good..."

Tim couldn't help but agree. Tim desperately wanted to wrestle their clothes off but he also didn't want Kon to even consider stopping what he was doing.

Kon's hand ran down Tim's sides to play at the waistband of his pajama bottoms.

"Hey," Kon whispered. "About these."

Tim lifted his hips, gasping again as his erection rubbed against Kon's hip.

"Yeah," Kon said. "That's a sight I think I will never forget."

With fumbling, clumsy fingers, Kon slipped Tim's pajama pants down over his hips and legs. Tossing Tim's pants to one side, Kon rocked back on to his knees. Kon skidded his boxers down over his hips and pulled them off. Sitting back down on his heels, he looked down at Tim.

"Ooooh, Tim," Kon groaned.

Tim knew what Kon meant.

Kon was sitting back on his heels, his broad, muscular chest had a thin sheen of sweat across his skin. Kon’s thick, well muscled thighs cradled a heavy sack and a thick, jutting erection.

Tim felt his mouth go dry and his stomach drop out.

The look on Kon's face was just as compelling. Kon's eyes were warm and dark with passion, his tongue peeked out and played along his lips as he looked intently at Tim. Almost as if he couldn't wait to taste Tim's skin again.

Kon looked…

Too good.

Tim moved then, without really thinking. Shifting over across the bed, Tim rested his hands on Kon's warm, hard thighs. Leaning down and resting his weight on his arms, Tim let his mouth play lightly across the tip of Kon's erection.

"Ohhhhhh, Tim," Kon groaned. His voice was soft and low, as if he was worried if he spoke too loudly, it might startle Tim away.

Tim let his lips move over the tip of Kon's erection in soft little nibbles. Kon smelled thick and warm with musk. Tim let his tongue peek out between his lips and play lightly across across the skin of Kon's erection.

"That feels--" Kon started but broke off when Tim suddenly licked his way up Kon's length. 

Kon stopped breathing then and Tim thought was a good indication that he should up the stakes a little bit. Taking Kon's erection fully into his mouth, Tim reached his hand up to cup Kon's sack. Kon groaned and leaned back, puttings his hands behind his back and resting his weight on his arms, giving Tim better access to erection.

Working into a rhythm, Tim heard Kon start to breath again in hot little ragged gasps. Kon's hips started to rock softly in tandem with the movement of Tim's mouth.

Kon was making low crooning noises in the back of his throat that Tim was absolutely going to make fun of him for… later. The sounds were getting a little distracting and made Tim’s erection twitch and leak.

“Tim,” Kon’s voice was deep and ragged. “Tim, I-- You need to pull off, buddy. You need to--”

Tim didn’t pull off.

He started to move faster, get Kon’s dick slicker, move his hand in rhythm with his mouth and…

Tim felt himself lifted abruptly by a firm but weightless pressure. Kon’s TTK had wrapped all around Tim, lifting him back, away and up. Tim was hovering, slightly elevated on the bed as Kon looked up at him with hot, dark eyes. Kon’s lips were slightly parted as he breathed heavily, eyeing Tim with a predatory expression on his face that Tim had never seen before.

Tim swallowed hard around a suddenly tight throat as a wave of arousal washed over him. 

“Here,” Kon husked, then paused to lick at his lips. “Here, in this bed, you don’t get to boss me around, Tim. You don’t get to call all the shots.”

Tim felt breathless and he was unsure how to respond. He opened his mouth to try and answer when Kon’s TTK moved him across the bed. Suddenly, Tim was in Kon’s lap, his legs draped over either side of Kon’s thickly muscled thighs. 

“Oh,” Tim gasped, and reached out to steady himself by wrapping his arms around Kon’s shoulders.

“This,” Kon purred into Tim’s ear, “is more like it.”

Kon wrapped his arms around Tim’s waist and pulled in for a deep, wet kiss. Reaching gently between them, Kon pressed their erections together and fisted them in one large hand.

Tim couldn’t help the low, thick groan that caught in the back of his throat. Kon’s hand, his erection, were so warm against Tim’s sensitive, prickling skin. Tim couldn’t help but rock up to meet the press of Kon’s fist, slick with Tim’s own spit and Kon’s precome. 

“Ohhh, yes. Just like that,” Kon coaxed as he worked them into sweet, steady rhythm.

Kon kissed down Tim’s throat, licking and nipping at Tim’s skin like the taste was compelling, addictive. The little flushes of pleasure that shot through Tim at the feel of Kon’s mouth, his hands, his thighs, his shoulders made Tim need to shake his head back and forth in an effort to bring his brain back online, but… 

But he couldn’t.

Tim couldn’t focus. He couldn’t think. The only things in the universe in that moment that he could think about were him and Kon and sensations that were ramping them both up to the point of no return.

Kon’s sudden gasp came in tandem with that same sensation of soft nothingness wrapping tightly around Tim and pressing him even closer to Kon. Kon’s TTK held him firm and still as Kon worked his hand between the two of them. With a deep gasp, Kon came, slicking his hand and Tim’s erection. 

Resting his head on Tim’s shoulder, Kon worked hard to catch his breath as his TTK slowly released its grip on Tim.

“Jesus, buddy,” Kon gasped, and rubbed his sweat damp face against Tim’s shoulder.

Tim laughed, a little helplessly, and pressed a kiss to Kon’s temple.

“Yeah, I think I know what you mean,” Tim said breathlessly.

Kon grinned at him.

“Not yet, you don’t,” Kon husked and shifted his grip, tightening his hand around Tim’s still come-slick erection.

A gasp caught in Tim’s throat as Kon worked his hand over Tim’s cock. 

“Can’t wait to get hard again,” Kon murmured into Tim’s ear. “There are so many things I want to do to you, Wonder Boy.”

Tim took in a stuttering breath and reached a hand down to wrap around Kon’s fist. Squeezing Kon’s hand tighter around his erection, Tim took control of Kon’s rhythm.

“I’ve been thinking about this for years,” Kon continued, catching Tim’s speed and rocking his hips in a way that was deeply suggestive and deeply intriguing. 

Tim opened his mouth to try and say something, but only wordless sounds of encouragement came out. 

"I wanna watch you come," Kon said, pressing a kiss to the corner of Tim's mouth, trailing his lips down to Tim's ear and nipping at the shell. "Can't wait to see you get sticky--"

Tim shut his eyes and shifted his hips, pressing his cock deeper into Kon's fist. Still slick with Kon's come, hot with the friction of Kon's fist, the press of Kon's body, the scent of his skin, the sound of voice whispering all the things he wanted to do to Tim were all too overwhelming.

Tim's breath caught in his lungs as he arched his back, the orgasm rocking through him like a force of nature. Tim shivered with the aftershocks as he pressed his face into Kon's shoulder and groaned deeply.

"You feel so good," Kon said, rubbing his hand over Tim's sweat slick back.

"Hmmm, I think you mean I feel so sticky," Tim said, looking down at the mess of sweat and come between them.

"I mean, I feel like both are true," Kon said. "I like sticky."

Tim laughed and shook his head, leaning back away from Kon.

"How about a shower? I like showers," Tim said.

"Of this, I am aware," Kon said, smugly. "Does this mean I do get to scrub you down."

"Your optimism has paid off," Tim confirmed, disentangling from Kon and leading him off towards the shower.

Kon followed, palming Tim's ass as they walked. Tim smiled and shook his head at Kon as he twisted the shower taps on and stepped inside.

They sluiced off under the hot water of Tim's very nice, very new shower head.

"You know, Wonder Boy," Kon said, reaching for Tim's shampoo. "I don't care what they say about you being a stick in the mud, you're pretty fun to roll around with."

Tim gave Kon a sharp smile in return.

"You know, SB," Tim said, matching Kon's relaxed, lyrical tone, "I don't care what they say about you being a flighty good for nothing, you're pretty fun to roll around with, too."

Kon grinned at Tim, looking very pleased with himself.

"Match made in heaven," Kon said with a level of smug confidence Tim didn't think he could ever even fake let alone feel.

"If you say so," Tim said, scrubbing down Kon's chest with slow, easy strokes.

"I do," Kon teased. "And remember, I'm sure enough for the both of us."

They took their time in the shower, enjoying the heat and the feel of the water. Tim briefly contemplated coaxing Kon into a quick second round before he remembered that Kon did actually need to get to work.

So did Tim, for that matter.

Tim made them a quick breakfast as they called Maggie for more details.

It turned out that they did have a facility that they could move their meta to while he learned to control his power. Corbin should be out and on parole in less than two weeks. It was a comforting thought. Tim hated the idea of locking up anyone who hadn't meant any real harm.

Kon gave Tim a quick kiss goodbye and took off for work, promising he would be back around dinnertime so they could eat and talk a little more.

Tim pulled out his work laptop and worked for a few hours before he heard a key in the lock to his front door.

"Timmers?" Jason called, tentatively. "You alone?"

"Yes, I'm alone. What did you expect? I'm in the kitchen," Tim called to Jason.

Jason walked gingerly into Tim's kitchen, looking around in an exaggerated way. He gave Tim a faux timid look before making his way to Tim's fridge and pulling out a pitcher of filtered water.

"I came by earlier--" Jason said, pouring himself a glass of water.

"Earlier?" Tim asked, furrowing his brows in confusion.

"Yeah, about four hours ago, but you were making these noises and then I heard--"

Tim felt himself flush all over with embarrassment and threw a roll of paper towels at Jason's head. Jason caught them easily and put them on the counter next to him.

"You ass!" Tim sputtered. "Text next time!"

"Yeah," Jason said, laughter in his voice. "I absolutely learned my lesson. No more popping in unannounced for me."

"I don't know why you started in the first place--" Tim began, but Jason just grinned at him.

"So, how'd it go?" Jason asked, conversationally.

"I guess you know--" Tim said with embarrassed bitterness.

"So you took my advice? To go with the flow? Just go with what feels right?"

"Mmm, sort of," Tim said, settling back down on his bar stool.

"Sort of?"

"I-- decided to use the transitive properties of boyfriends," Tim said.

"I think you need to brush up on your geometry, little brother. Because that's not a thing."

"It totally is."

"Ok, I'll bite. What does it mean?"

Tim grinned at Jason.

"It means he's sure enough for the both of us. I”m just going to go with that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG guys IT'S OVER!!! It's all posted!!!
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed the story. 
> 
> I had fun writing it and I can't thank Snow enough for all the help editing and brainstorming. <33
> 
> Thank you all for reading and commenting along the way. I appreciate all the thoughtful and kind feedback.


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